Petr Cech had a nightmare debut to leave Arsene Wenger furious with his Arsenal players.
The Gunners goalkeeper was beaten twice as West Ham damaged Arsenal’s title ambitions and some fans booed them off at the whistle.
Wenger tore into his players and admitted they conceded “two very cheap goals” as Slaven Bilic led West Ham to their first win over Arsenal in 16 attempts, stretching back to 2007.
Wenger said: “Our performance was not convincing. On the two aspects of our game, going forward and defending, overall we were punished. On top of that, we gave two very cheap goals away.
“I haven’t spoken to Cech. But I can’t see many convincing individual performances today. It’s difficult to single one player out.
“It’s not only him (Cech), we have enough experience at the back. If you look at our backline, the youngest one is 30. We are maybe guilty at 0-0 to give them a goal as soft as that.
“It was a defensive lapse. A collective lapse. There are many things to say about that. I knew that if the delivery was good, we would be in trouble, even before the free-kick was taken.
“The concentration maybe was not completely there on the set-piece, the organisation was not perfect. The positional play, we were too far from our goal. We gave him too much distance to run into. We killed ourselves.
“When you are a professional football player, you face your responsibilities and not always look at something else. Today, we have to look at ourselves and think that we were not good enough.
“We were not good enough, we were not convincing and that’s basically it. And West Ham played well. Congratulations to them. Hopefully we can bounce back quickly.”
Wenger insists that he is still open to making a signing but claimed that they must bounce back rather than just rely on a new signing to solve the problem.
“It’s difficult but it’s part of our job,” said Wenger. “A successful season is down to how you respond to disappointments. It’s never a clear motorway and we have to respond quickly.
Arsenal 0-2 West Ham in pics:
“We have a tricky start. We play Palace, who are a very good team. We play Liverpool, who are a very good team. We could see that fitness wise we are not completely there yet.
“I can only repeat what I have already said, If an exceptional solution (new signing) turns up, we do it. But as well, after a defeat like this, it’s important not to always think let’s take a solution from outside.”
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