Premier League: Stoke City 1-0 Arsenal

After winning the first match 3-2 thanks to an unexpected come-back in the last five minutes against Leceister, Arsenal already fell at Stoke City 1-0. It is only two games but yet again. The Gunners did not show up in the first hour of the game and woke too late to find the equalizer. 

Coach Wenger on the defeat:
“It’s the kind of the night where you are angry because not only did we not score with the number of chances we had, we made stupid mistakes centrally. First by losing the ball and then afterwards we didn’t defend properly for the goal. On top of that, I think we were unlucky with some of the referee’s decisions because we scored a regular goal.

We are very frustrated because we lost a game that we should have won and that’s terrible to swallow. We had plenty of chances and on top of that, not only did we not finish, but we gave them an easy goal to score, just after half time. We knew at half-time it was very important to keep our defensive focus in this kind of game, (then) we came out and didn’t defend properly. That’s where we are not forgivable today. At the end of the day I believe when you are not concentrating on the way you want to play, you pay for it at that level. At the end of the day we had 80 per cent possession and we lost the game, away from home.

Last week we conceded two goals on corners. They only had three shots on goal, so I don’t feel that we defended that badly. On set-pieces, yes. Today I would say that we can look at ourselves and we are 100 per cent guilty on the goal we conceded. But in the Premier League you do not get away with defending like we did on the goal. We have to realize as well, that if we want to transform the energy we put into the game as well like that, you have to defend properly, every single minute”.

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