Arsene Wenger Praises Players After Recovering From Nightmare First-Half

By The Editor
on 23rd December 2017

Arsene Wenger still thinks Man United defeat is playing on players’ minds…

Arsene Wenger hailed the players’ response to the “nightmare” start against Liverpool as we fought our way back to draw level against Jurgen Klopp’s men.

We really should’ve been dead and buried by half-time, with the likes of Saido Mane and Mo Salah missing guilt-edged chances – Petr Cech also saved us on a few occasions.

Salah did eventually double their lead, but a wave of three goals in six minutes saw us turn the game on its head and sent the Emirates into a furore.

The game was reminiscent of two boxers standing at the centre of the ring and trading blows, so it was almost inevitable that we’d fail to hold on and so it proved with Firmino freakish goal.

Wenger, though, chose to focus on the positives and our never say die attitude through the game.

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“I would say it was a nightmare [for us] in the first half, but I was very proud of the players in the second half,” Wenger told Arsenal Player.

“We showed quality, character, gave everything and overall, I must say, what can you say? Mentally we were not at the level in the first half, you could see incidents of the Manchester United game here where we had the bad start.

“Overall we played too deep, too far from each other, but we were much more compact in the second half and after that we are even frustrated in the end because we were 3-2 up and could have won the game.”

Wenger’s constant referral to the Man United game is rather worrying, especially when he also praises the mental strength of his team.

The defeat to Jose Mourinho’s was over a month ago, surely that should be out of our players’ minds?

And, given that Wenger is comfortable repeating that theory in public, it’s probably also being uttered behind closed doors, giving the players an excuse they often crave.