‘Something has gone’ – Arsene Wenger shocked after Arsenal’s 3-1 loss at Stoke City

EPL, Arsenal v Blackburn Rovers, Arsene Wenger

Related Links

Teams

Players

By Wayne Veysey at Britannia Stadium

Arsene Wenger admitted “something has gone” for Arsenal as he reflected on another setback for his faltering team.

The Arsenal manager said it was not the time to analyse the shortcomings of his players although he did not attempt to hide from the inadequacies of his side following their seventh league defeat of the season.

“Something has gone. You can see that today,” Wenger told reporters afterwards. “This team has done well overall this season. It is not the best moment to analyse the players after a disappointing game. We have to take a distance and make the right analysis of the season.

“It was a disappointing performance. The competitive level of Stoke was higher than ours. Overall we lost the game because Stoke defended much better than we did today, with much more purpose. Stoke are a good team and full of confidence.”

Arsenal’s 3-1 defeat came only a week after they beat Manchester United 1-0 at Emirates Stadium and appeared to re-ignite the title race.

“That’s the Premier League,” said Wenger. “If you do not turn up with the same competitive spirit you can lose games like that, especially at Stoke. The most important thing is not to be 1-0 down. We moved the ball around a lot but did not penetrative enough. At the end of the day we were not dangerous enough.”

Wenger admitted Arsenal have conceded far too often from set-pieces this season after Stoke took the lead from a free-kick near the corner flag.

“We have conceded 21 goals from set pieces and 17 from open play, which is less than anybody else in open play but we have been caught on set pieces,” said the Frenchman. “Kenwyne Jones did not even have to jump to head the ball in. That is something we must correct.

“It is the easiest thing to correct in the game but you still must understand the flight of the ball and want to be the first to the ball. We are sometimes a bit naive.”

Wenger revealed that he is considering giving Thomas Vermaelen, who has missed nearly the entire season with an achilles’ injury, a run-out next weekend.

“Maybe I will give him the last two games, I don’t know,” said the Arsenal boss. “I would have loved to have had him available.”