Arsene Wenger insists Arsenal are on road to recovery... but says no result would have silenced his critics after Gunners' FA Cup thrashing of Lincoln

• e-mail

Arsene Wenger claimed that nothing would silence his critics as Arsenal qualified for their third FA Cup semi final in four years - but insisted that his team would recover from their 10-2 aggregate defeat to Bayern Munich last week to finish the season strongly.

Wenger, whose team ended non-League Lincoln's FA Cup dream by crushing them 5-0, said he still blamed the referee for the second leg thrashing last week at The Emirates.

And said that his team would ignore the uncertainty around his own position and the criticism aimed at them to finish the season well.

Arsene Wenger believes the 5-0 thrashing of Lincoln in the FA Cup will not silence his critics

Wenger said: 'You should sit in my seat for a while and you will understand that it’s an impossible job to keep everybody quiet. Ideally I would love to but practically it’s very difficult. But we try.

'I just focus on winning the next game always. We were a bit nervous because confidence drops. I think the team were unjustifiably criticised against Bayern Munich because we had an outstanding game and our game was killed not by the fault of he players.

'I have watched that game three times now and it is still the referee who killed our game. But we have to take a distance with that and have bigger perspective and respond today

And Wenger revealed that Lincoln's FA Cup heroics this season and his own side's setback against Bayern was the reason for selecting his strongest side. 

'I didn't want to gamble today because I knew that it was very important to win the game,’ said Wenger. 

‘And I felt that the team had done well against Bayern and I wanted to give them the chance to find confidence back by winning the next game.' 

The Gunners boss believes his team played well in the 5-1 thrashing by Bayern Munich

Wenger believed the loss to Bayern was down to the referee and not how his players played