The match was a cagey affair, with both sides seemingly scared to lose rather than brave enough to win it. However, Wenger believes his side focusing on the defensive side of their game was understandable after such a heavy defeat at Anfield. “I felt we were nervous, yes. It is not worrying because we care about what we do and when you concede five goals like we did on Saturday … we are only human beings and that is always what you get after a game like that. “Sometimes you don’t score because the team was highly focused not to concede. That may be restricted our game going forward a little bit because we were certainly hit by the five goals we conceded on Saturday. You could feel that here. When you are hit like we were, the players want not to lose it and we could have lost it in the last five minutes,” he insisted.
With such a formidable fixture ahead of them Arsenal can have no room for nerves. Often levelled with the criticism that they cannot win on the big occasions, last night was a perfect opportunity to lay down a marker, finish Manchester United’s top four challenge, and return to the top of the table as a statement of intent following Chelsea’s draw with West Brom. However, Wenger’s men wilted, producing a poor and insipid display. “We have come out of two difficult games and we are still in a strong position. That is the only positive. We had two bad results but we are still in a position where we can do it. We lost two points here and we missed an opportunity to go top of the league again, but a point keeps us in the race. We’ve had difficult games, Liverpool and Man United and, from now on, it is important we come back to winning,” declared Wenger.
The north Londoners may well still be in the race, but they are not going to win the league ahead of Manchester City or Chelsea unless they produce big performances when it matters. Wenger should be looking back on these two games with a cushion at the top of the table, rather than appearing to be content just to still be in the race. When your rivals slip up, you must take advantage and Arsenal have failed to turn up when it matters, which is precisely why they may fall just short come May. Although the mantle was on Arsenal to attack, they had a take-on success of just 37% against Manchester United.
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