Wenger fears CL disaster

[Olivier's xmas twist]

Arsenal boss admits missing out on the top four would be a failure

Arsene Wenger has admitted he would regard it as a disaster if Arsenal failed to qualify for the UEFA Champions League next season.

The Gunners have suffered successive defeats at Fulham and Swansea to derail their drive up the table, with the gap to Chelsea at four points ahead of this weekend's fixtures which see Wenger's men host Manchester United on Sunday.
Arsenal have played in Europe's elite competition for 14 consecutive seasons under Wenger, but earlier this week, chairman Peter Hill-Wood admitted the club had a contingency plan for the financial blow of failing to make the top four, stressing "so it's not a disaster" if they did not qualify.
In Wenger's eyes, however, the benchmark has been set.
"For me it would be [a disaster]", the Arsenal manager said. "Because I want to play with the best

Not good enough[/h]"We want to be in there, in the top four, and to play in the Champions League, and anything else would not be good enough."
Should Arsenal lose to United on Sunday, they could be cast further adrift of the top four, while leaders Manchester City and arch-rivals Tottenham, who clash at the Etihad Stadium, already seem well out of reach.
Wenger, though, continues to focus on the positives. "It could be a good one [weekend]", he said.
"In the press you are now educated to see everything in black. You reflect the fans' fear, but you create it as well."
While insisting he is not looking for excuses for Arsenal's recent poor displays, Wenger believes his side have been on the wrong end of some key decisions, such as when Swansea were awarded a penalty for what the Arsenal manager saw as a dive by Nathan Dyer in a match they would go on to lose 3-2 at Liberty Stadium.
Right decisions[/h]The Arsenal manager said: "We want the right decisions to be made.
"There are some people [in Sweden] who made a study of last season and we were second in the league considering the decisions of the referees and we finished fourth. It showed we were two points behind the leaders.

"There is no conspiracy, you can still win the game with a bad decision, but you want the right decisions to be made."
Wenger added: "If [Robert] Pires once dived against Portsmouth, okay, then for six months it was a story in the newspapers. Dyer dived on Sunday and nobody said a word.
"You cannot say it is exactly the same and it doesn't matter. If it doesn't matter when Dyer dives why does it matter when Pires dives?"

http://www1.skysports.com/football/n...rs-CL-disaster

[Xhaka Can’t]

Squeaking into 4th would be a failure.

In fact the last six years have been pretty much full of fail.

[Marc Overmars]

Squeaking into 4th would be a failure.

In fact the last six years have been pretty much full of fail.

Epic fails, to be precise.

[Syn]

That's fair enough from Arsene.

It's obvious we're not getting our fair share of decisions. And one reason for that is because players don't even bother appealing for penalties or free-kicks any more. We don't surround the referee and argue it for a a couple of minutes. We just take it. I remember in a recent league game, Ramsey was brought down for a stone-wall pen which wasn't given...he hardly appealed and just got on with it - as if he expected the ref not to give it. This is where we miss Cesc. He knew how to get the ref on our side. I've been saying it for a couple of seasons now.

It's good to hear Wenger say that missing out on the top 4 would be a disaster and not good enough.

[Boss]

His comments are fair enough but yet again they come with no actions being made to back them up.

Tired of him whining about everything under the sun when he's made more mistakes than anyone else has over the last few years.

[Özim]

He wants to play with best and yet he doesn't seem that bothered about competing with them. Who the f*ck cares about playing against the best team when they're pretty much going to knock you out every time.

I'd rather play with weaker teams and beat them to a trophy. Not really that fussed about 4th place as I've said before, it makes us money but we never use it anyway, moreover the CL is a bore I'm sick of making up the numbers.

I wouldn't see being outside the top 4 as a disaster, in fact if by some miracle Wenger got the sack it would be an success.

[Olivier's xmas twist]

He wants to play with best and yet he doesn't seem that bothered about competing with them. Who the f*ck cares about playing against the best team when they're pretty much going to knock you out every time.

I'd rather play with weaker teams and beat them to a trophy. Not really that fussed about 4th place as I've said before, it makes us money but we never use it anyway, moreover the CL is a bore I'm sick of making up the numbers.

I wouldn't see being outside the top 4 as a disaster, in fact if by some miracle Wenger got the sack it would be an success.

No way to know we can, id rather we were in the cl then the europa league which won't be enjoyable because we won't even take it serious neither will our players.

[Joker]

Wenger should stop whining and look at the real reasons for our predicament, namely the poor quality squad he has assembled. And while he may be saying not qualifying for the UCL would be a disaster now, at the end of the season he'll be saying, "Oh it doesn't matter, because we financially planned for such a contigency anyway etc".

[Ernesto]

Course it's a f***in failure.

Really begins to p!ss me off when Wenger starts going to the papers, trying to sell a sensational story- the gist of which any number of football fans could have worked out without having to pay 40p for a crappy tabloid.

We've lost to Fulham and Swansea in our last two EPL games from winning positions, and the best Wenger can do is sign an ageing Henry in panic. Just goes to show that this man has no nouse (is that the word?) in the transfer market any more when every club has a scouting system in place.

Really tired of Wenger now and this predictable Charlton Athletic-like season surrender that seems to occur earlier and earlier season by season.

[Olivier's xmas twist]

Course it's a f***in failure.

Really begins to p!ss me off when Wenger starts going to the papers, trying to sell a sensational story- the gist of which any number of football fans could have worked out without having to pay 40p for a crappy tabloid.

We've lost to Fulham and Swansea in our last two EPL games from winning positions, and the best Wenger can do is sign an ageing Henry in panic. Just goes to show that this man has no nouse (is that the word?) in the transfer market any more when every club has a scouting system in place.

Really tired of Wenger now and this predictable Charlton Athletic-like season surrender that seems to occur earlier and earlier season by season.

He never went to the paper.