Wenger – The reasons Arsenal lost…

The Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was not overly impressed with his players yesterday, and thinks that they had more than enough chances to beat Sunderland.
There were many reasons why Arsenal lost, according to Wenger.
1. Arsenal didn’t score!


“I don’t think we missed anybody especially, no. We lost a game where we can only fault ourselves because we didn’t score, some players were not at their best and we gave a goal away on the only situation where Sunderland could score one today. It was on a set piece. I believe it’s more down to the fact that we made a big mistake on the corner because the game was there for the taking in the last 20 minutes. But of course, when you’re down, it makes it more difficult.”
2. Alan Wiley didn’t give Carlos Vela a penalty in the closing stages.
“The referee was up with play and the fact he didn’t give a penalty was unacceptable. It is difficult for us to get a penalty. Even the most obvious ones.”
3. It was an away game.
“We have a game in hand. I didn’t expect them to drop points against Wolves at all. It’s very different when you have an international break and then play away from home. I feel there’s a massive difference. If we had played Sunderland at home today, we would have won the game.”
4. The team “lacked sharpness”
“Yes but it’s a small worry. I believe that going forward especially we lacked sharpness and desire to go behind the defenders. We had chosen the easy part of the game, that is always come to the ball and not to be exposed then with our pace in behind. In football, if you want to score goals, you have to go behind the defenders.”
5. Sunderland “wanted it more”
“I didn’t feel really under threat from Sunderland. If you look at what they created today you would be surprised. If you take a distance and you watch this game again, emotions away from the game, you will be surprised how little they created. But they took their chance because in some way they wanted it more than us.”
6. They stopped us from playing.
“You expect that. I have a little to be done because they tried more to destroy and we had more of the ball. So I think that they tried to stop us from playing, sometimes on the fringe of the rule, but that’s part of the game.”
There are certainly enough reasons there, but the main one was the first one. Arsenal didn’t score!