Arsene Wenger: 'It looked like we have lost our nerve, and our rationality. The heart took over the head, and that doesn’t work'

Published: 25 February, 2015
by TOM FOOT

ARSENE Wenger admitted it will be “extremely difficult” for Arsenal to overturn Monaco’s spectacular 3-1 win at the Emirates last night (Wednesday). 

The Arsenal boss blamed “suicidal defending” and a “more heart than head” performance for the defeat in the first leg of the Champions League tie. He singled out Olivier Giroud for missing “easy chances” on a night that both Frenchmen will want to forget.

Wenger said: “We missed chances. We were suicidal, defensively. The second and third goals were suicide. That makes our task extremely difficult. 

“It looked like we have lost our nerve, and our rationality. The heart took over the head, and that doesn’t work.”

The Gunners were booed off after conceding a late third goal minutes after bringing the score back to 2-1 with a fine strike from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. 

Arsenal’s frontline looked all over the place from the off and the poor link-up play was topped off by some terrible finishing, notably from Giroud, who could have have had a hat-trick of tap-ins but instead was substituted to loud cheers after a series of embarrassing misses. 

The Monaco fans were singing “merci, Giroud” shortly before he was hauled off for Theo Walcott.

Wenger added: “The number of chances missed tonight, at that level you can’t do that. I think he (Giroud) had an off night tonight. He missed easy chances. He looked like he was not having one of his best days.”

A thunderbolt strike from Geoffrey Kondogbia on 39 minutes gave Monaco the lead, the shot taking a big deflection off Per Mertesacker. The wily Dimitar Berbatov made it 2-0 after a simple counter-attack left Arsenal woefully exposed.

Oxlade-Chamberlain curled in a brilliant strike on 90 minutes but Yannick Carrasco found the bottom corner after being allowed to run 60 metres without a challenge and straight in at goal.

ARSENAL: Ospina, Bellerin, Gibbs, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Coquelin (Oxlade-Chamberlain, 68), Cazorla (Rosicky, 81), Sanchez, Giroud (Walcott, 60), Ozil, Welbeck. 
Subs not used: Szczesny, Gabriel, Monreal, Chambers.
Attendance: 59,868