Arsene Wenger Labels Arsenal’s Defending Against Stoke City As “Not Forgivable”

By The Editor
on 20th August 2017

Arsene Wenger not happy with defensive department…

Arsene Wenger lambasted our defensive display as we succumbed to our first league defeat of the season at Stoke City, a ground which we’ve infamously struggled at.

However, unlike previous years, this wasn’t your typical Arsenal defeat at Stoke City where they’ve bullied us off the pitch and bombarded us aerially.

We were fully in control of the game with 77% possession, and also created a number of clear-cut chances throughout the 90 minutes.

In these types of games, it was imperative that we didn’t give any silly chances away which would lead to us chasing the game, something we inevitably did.

Granit Xhaka’s poor pass and subsequent attempt at a tackle gave Jese a free run at our back four, yet he still had some work to do.

His one-two with Saido Berahinho was very simple, yet it outdid two international defenders in Shkodran Mustafi and Nacho Monreal – and Wenger was holding back.

“We are very frustrated because we lost a game that we should have won and that’s terrible to swallow,” Wenger told Arsenal Player.

“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.”

Check out Wenger’s assessment of the game in the video above.