Wenger – Defeat Was Self Inflicted

Manager Arsene Wenger has said our defeat to Southampton today was ‘self inflicted’ and neither made the most of our chances in the match, nor defended well enough.

Speaking to the Official Site following the two nil loss, a disappointed gaffer explained.

‘We put a lot of energy into the game and we were quite in control, but it’s a self inflicted defeat. We were dominant, but we couldn’t take our chances. On top of that, we not only couldn’t take them but we gave them chances and that is too much at our level.’

Wenger went on to say the really frustrating thing was ‘it is not the first time’ we’ve done that this season and we keep paying for it, as when you can’t take your chances at one end, you certainly need to defend better than we did at the other end and again in not doing that we have ‘paid a heavy price’ for it.

‘I’m disappointed because there was at least a draw in the game, and if we were better defensively we could have won it. We have given a lot, I cannot fault the attitude of the team but we were again haunted by the ghost of what we have seen since the start of the season.’

Wenger also had praise for the goalkeeper Fraser Forster, saying that at points he kept them in the match and he admitted that given we ‘faded’ during the West Ham game, we just weren’t fresh enough today.

The manager didn’t ‘want to talk about (him)’ when asked about Szczesny, and he also confirmed that Ospina would be playing this Sunday. As for picking his first choice back five for the game though he also added ‘it is always a concern when you give goals away.’

The two controversial moments in the game was the possible red card for Southampton’s Gardos, and Wenger explained on it not being shown.

‘I was surprised but there were many people surprised. I think at that stage, I don’t know whether it was in the box or not, but it was a definite red card. Only the referee will explain to you why he didn’t give it.’

The other moment was Wenger being confronted by a fan.

‘He was a young boy and I think he was a Southampton fan. He was not arrested at all. I don’t think he said anything. It was not aggressive at all.’