Match Reaction v Man Utd

[Syn]

one question i have is how come every one is jumping on wenger and calling a cunt and all for taking the ox off yet (not just here btw) loads of fans dont mention taking djourou off. if we had won, the sub would have won it. from what i heard about the ox, was he signalled to the bench, had been throwing up all week hence why he came off.

Djourou shouldn't have started. Everyone knew he'd be a liability and he was. It's easy to say now and it was just as easy to say then. And I did. As did everyone. Miquel or Yennaris would've been better options. So although Wenger reacted at HT and subbed him off, that was him correcting a mistake that he never should have made (and a mistake that had already cost us as we were losing from a cross that came in from our right side). And 'IF' we had won, the sub wouldn't have won it. All that sub did was ensure we had a fighting chance of not getting battered.

on the performance itself, i was quite happy with it, thought the lads did well, yenanrris was great in second half, kos proves once again he is best defender in premiership right now, just look at his tackle which led to our goal. simply superb. there are many things we can say about why we lost but it is not just the sub. rvp moaned about the sub, but he missed a golden chance to draw us level early on. that could have lost us the game. also i think the fans played a part, fat fuck was booed before he came on, we just scored and the crowd are booing. by all means boo at the end but what would you think as player if you just scored and want to push on and the crowd boo and scream abuse at the manger.

I don't know where to start with that. I'll just say that while you might not be wrong with some of what you say, I think it's the wrong way of looking at what happened.

[Boss]

Wojciech Szczesny and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain have leapt to the defence of under-fire manager Arsene Wenger following the club's 2-1 defeat to Manchester United.

Wenger, who has been in charge of Arsenal since 1996, was on the receiving end of booing from sections of home fans on Sunday after substituting the impressive Chamberlain for the out-of-form Andrei Arshavin in the second half.

Gunners captain Robin van Persie also appeared angry at the decision, which was followed by a winning goal for United, although the Dutchman has since clarified his stance, expressing his backing for the French coach.

And Szczesny has echoed Van Persie's comments, stating: "He's done a magnificent job over the 15 years and he's still doing it now. So I don't think his position at this club should ever be questioned."

Chamberlain, who was making his first Premier League start for Arsenal against United and assisted Van Persie's equaliser, also voiced his support for the boss.

The teenager said: "He's Arsene Wenger, a top-quality manager for a number of years for Arsenal. He's done a lot for this club so whatever he does and whatever decision he makes towards me and the team, I'll have to respect and I do respect that.

"The fans pay money to come and watch us so they have the right to have their own opinions and show their frustration. But all we can guarantee and I can guarantee is the boys are completely focused on the task at hand.

"We have meetings in the week and we talk about what we need to improve on. Everyone is trying to push in the same direction and maybe it's not going for us how we may like at the moment.

"Recently, we've had some very good performances but come up against some very good teams. We've just fallen short at the last hurdle. All we can guarantee is we're working very hard in training and in games and we'll do all we can try put it right."

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/st...wenger?cc=4716

[DJ Philosophe]