Arsene Wenger admitted he is ‘angry’ after Arsenal’s defeat to Manchester United but hopes that it will fire up his players to go on to better things.
The French tactician watched on as his side were downed 3-1 at the Emirates, with goals from Jesse Lingard and Antonio Valencia sending them outside the top-four and 15 points behind Manchester City at the top of the Premier League.
Wenger’s side had a host of chances but ran into an in-form David De Gea who made a string of wonderful saves.
The Arsenal boss admitted the result is ‘very difficult to accept’ for his side but is confident that improvement will come in the future.
‘I believe the result has to make us angry and even more determined,’ he said. ‘If I am a player, and I think with what we produced, we have a huge potential, and we lose the game, we cannot accept that.
‘De Gea is an outstanding goalkeeper and I don’t want to take anything away. But we had situations, despite De Gea, where we should have scored.
‘But I take a lot of positives and I feel sorry for the players — that’s why I’m angry. Especially when you produce that quality of performance.
‘We have lost games here against Man United where we didn’t deserve anything. But what makes you angry is that you produce that performance and in the end you have nothing to show for it.
‘That’s very difficult to accept.’
While his defenders were guilty of making some criminal mistakes, Wenger refused to cast blame on them and insisted the buck stops with him.
‘Look, I am not here to especially blame people. I am blaming nobody — I am blaming myself as always,’ he added.
‘I just say, I want Arsenal Football Club to win. When the performance is of that quality, we have to be efficient. We are in this job to be efficient, you know. So I blame first myself.’
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