Arsene Wenger: 'We were altogether maybe a bit soft to cope with what they offered us'

Published: 7 December, 2014 
By STEVE BARNETT

Premier League 
STOKE CITY 3, ARSENAL 2 

IT'S hard to know what frustrated Arsenal fans more on Saturday evening, the 3-2 defeat at Stoke or manager Arsene Wenger blaming the result on defensive injuries. 

The Potters ran riot in the first half at the Britannia Stadium as they scored after only 19 seconds, and went on to take a 3-0 advantage in at the break. 

The Gunners staged a brilliant fightback in the second half and looked capable of getting something from the game until Calum Chambers was sent off late on after being shown his second yellow card of the afternoon. 

Wenger blamed the 3-2 defeat on the injuries besetting his back four, maybe forgetting his unfulfilled promise to replace Thomas Vermaelen in the summer when he sold the then Arsenal captain to Barcelona. 

"They started strong, we have to give them credit for that," said the Frenchman. "We were a bit inexperienced at the back – we couldn’t play Koscielny or Monreal and we had Debuchy out as well. We were altogether maybe a bit soft to cope with what they offered us." 

It's an excuse that surely would only have acted to infuriate the Arsenal fans, who have continually pleaded with Wenger to strengthen the club's defensive options. 

On Saturday it all started to go wrong for Wenger after just 19 seconds when Steven N'Zonzi whipped in a cross from the right which found Peter Crouch, who steadied himself before placing his shot past Emiliano Martinez. 

Ex-Barcelona striker Bojan Krkic capped a man-of-the-match display with a composed finish on 35 minutes, before Jonathan Walters added a third on the stroke of half-time to wrap up arguably the worst 45 minutes Arsenal fans have had to endure this season. 

The visitors were lucky not go 4-0 down in the second half when Bojan cut inside before firing past Martinez, only for the goal to be chalked off as a result of Mame Biram Diouf being offside. 

The Gunners capitalised on that bit of fortune in the 68th minute when Santi Cazorla converted from the spot after Mathieu Flamini had been clipped by Diouf. 

Two minutes later a stunning volley from Aaron Ramsey brought the north Londoners to the brink of a remarkable comeback. But a second yellow card for Chambers halted Arsenal's brave rally and Stoke held out in a frantic finale. 

The red card infuriated an already frustrated Wenger. "It was a bad decision," he said. "If Chambers has to go off today, I can watch with you the game and I’ll find you five more players who should go." 

The question now is, after another disappointing result, how many Arsenal fans want Wenger to go? 

ARSENAL: Martinez, Bellerin (Welbeck, 45), Chambers, Mertesacker, Gibbs (Campbell, 92), Flamini, Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Cazorla, Sanchez, Giroud (Podolski, 63) 
Subs not used: Szczesny, Koscielny, Ajayi, Maitland-Niles 
Attendance: 27,367