Arsenal are out of the League Cup leaving Chelsea heading to the Quarterfinals after a 2-0 road win
Arsenal manager Wenger reacts after the loss
on rotating his squad…
I think it was a very tight game that was decided on one or two mistakes but overall we cannot play all the games with the same players, at the some stage you have to rotate. No, that’s not a regret overall – there’s a lot of positives in the game, there is as well negatives because we lost it and that we repeated a little bit giving the first goal away. In the big games you give yourselves a mountain to climb, especially when you play against a team who defends well and is good on the counter-attacks. But overall it was a game played at a lot of pace where the players put the effort in.
on what the team lacked…
I think what we lacked is that we were 1-0 down and in a big game that is giving yourself a very difficult task to do because you give the opposing team a chance to counter-attack. We also did not create enough chances.
on Bendtner’s performance…
I do not want to go into the individual assessment of the players in the press conference. I leave that between the player and myself.
on the psychological effect of two home defeats in a week…
Look it’s better to win if you ask me. Of course it’s difficult but that’s part of the season you know you will not win all of the games but we have to respond well on Saturday against Liverpool. We are in a strong position in the league and we have a good opportunity at home and we we have to turn this round because away from home we are very solid but at home as well you know that it is important and vital to win the big games.
on the depth of the squad…
Don’t go too quickly in the conclusions knowing that at the moment we have Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Podolski who are out. It’s three players who have a big impact offensively. If you put them in I believe that it’s a completely different position in the team.
on still not beating Mourinho…
I don’t think he scored the first goal. Azpilicueta did.
on the defending…
It happens in football unfortunately.
on Emmanuel Frimpong…
No, he said it was a joke. I don’t know [that] has he a problem with England, with anybody else, with Arsenal. In fact he was on the list to be the 19th player, he was called up this morning but he was sick. So for us, he was selected.
on falling behind early…
Yes it is [a worry]. It is not one you can correct, it is not easy to correct, but it is feasible. We have not to let that play too much on our minds. Just go into the next game, play good football and be focused. I think it made us a bit nervous, because we kicked a few balls out at the back that were not needed.
on Ju-Young Park…
He was selected because he did well in training recently. Wigan were interested and I would have done it but in the end it wasn’t realised because we didn’t find an agreement with Wigan.
on facing the big teams…
Let’s not jump too quickly to conclusions because if you take the points we have made since the first of January, we have made more than anyone else. I believe that a longer distance reveals more about the quality of a team than the last few games. It is difficult to swallow that happened to us in the last week, but the mistakes are so big that it can be corrected. We have to keep the basis of our game and go into it with that and get our mistakes out.
on losing to a top-four rival…
In football it is always difficult to be definite. People always go quickly to definite conclusions. Against Aston Villa, we were relegated, we have a revolution [but] today we are in a strong position in the league. It is down to how we get rid of those mistakes without losing belief in our qualities. That is what is at stake.
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