Unfortunately, Arsenal dropped to 4th place after two poor performances this week. While there are excuses regarding what happened against Everton and City, the matter of the fact is that the Gunners are now 9 points behind Chelsea and have been overtaken by Guardiola’s side.
Sunday’s game could have gone either way if not for Leroy Sane’s goal. The Gunners started off perfectly and scored an early goal which could have brought them the victory. For the first time in quite some time, Wenger talked about losing a game due to refereeing problems as reported by Sky Sports. Wenger said:
“The two goals are two offside goals and in a game of that stature I feel enough is enough for us. We got some bad decisions for the whole season and today I looked at the goals and both are offside.” – while the Frenchman is right about the first goal he might have seen the wrong replay for the second one as Sterling looked on side. Also, Sunday’s performance reminds us of how Arsenal played against Guardiola’s Barcelona in the past. It`s tough to win against a side that you allowed to have 5 times more shots on goal than you. (Arsenal had one shot on goal)
Wenger also spoke about what was hopefully the worst week of this season for Arsenal:
“It’s a shame because in the two games we were 1-0 up and we lost the two games 2-1. But we were quite in control and in the second half we suffered after their first goal for 20-25 minutes.”
“It’s a horrible week but it’s part of the season as well. Unfortunately, what is horrible is on the schedule we knew it was a difficult week because we had the Champions League game before that but we were controlling both games and that’s difficult. But the mentality is strong and we have to respond now.”
It`s a pity Arsenal didn’t finish this week well. Aside from the two losses this week they last lost in the league to Liverpool on opening day. Arsenal now must focus on getting back to winning ways and putting this week behind them as the fixtures come thick and fast over Christmas.