LONDON -- Arsene Wenger insisted his players were "unjustifiably criticised" after their 5-1 loss to Bayern Munich, calling their performance "outstanding" and rejecting the notion they had let him down.
Wenger's team bounced back with a 5-0 win over non-league side Lincoln City on Saturday at the Emirates to reach the FA Cup semifinals, but the Frenchman spent most of his postgame news conference defending his team against the avalanche of criticism they've faced since Tuesday.
Arsenal conceded five second-half goals against Bayern after Laurent Koscielny was sent off to lose 10-2 on aggregate.
The result has only increased calls for Wenger to step down in the summer when his contract expires, but he maintained that the blame for Arsenal's result should be placed on the referee for his decision to send Koscielny off and award a penalty for Bayern.
" I think the team was unjustifiably criticised for our last game against Bayern Munich. Because we had an outstanding game," Wenger said. "And our game was killed, not by the fault of the players. But we have to take a distance with that and have a look at a bigger perspective than people want to do.
"And overall to respond today, that's what we did. I think we had an outstanding game against Bayern Munich. Our game was killed by the referee. I've watched this game three times now, and it's still the referee who killed our game."
Asked whether the players had admitted they let him down, Wenger shot back: "I would like to watch the game with you and you would see that the players didn't let me down, nor themselves, nor the club.
"I think we had an outstanding performance as long as we were 11 against 11."
Saturday's win puts Arsenal within two wins of a third FA Cup title in four years, but it's questionable whether even that would be enough to turn fans' mood around. A few hundred supporters staged another protest march before the game demanding that Wenger isn't given a new contract.
And it was clear from Wenger's lineup that he wasn't taking any risks against the non-league opponents.
Wenger, who had played several of his backups and a couple of academy players in previous rounds of the FA Cup, fielded a full-strength team for this game. Goalkeeper Petr Cech, who made a key save at 0-0 in the first half, and left-back Kieran Gibbs were the only changes from the Bayern loss.
"I didn't want to gamble today because I knew it was very important to win the game," Wenger said. "And I felt as well that the team had performed well against Bayern and I wanted to give them a chance to find confidence back by winning the next game.
"And that's why I maintained 90 percent of the players in the starting lineup. Because we have been hit very hard after the game and that is always dangerous because the confidence can go very quickly."
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had to come off in the second half with a hamstring injury, but Wenger said "it didn't look like a big" problem.
Theo Walcott gave Arsenal the lead shortly before halftime and Arsenal then poured in goals after the break as Lincoln finally ran out of steam.
Lincoln manager Danny Cowley said Arsenal's performance was a credit to Wenger.
"People criticise Arsene Wenger, and have criticised him this week, but anyone who really knows football and see the way those Arsenal players move, and their method and their understanding of each other's space and tactically how intelligent they are, that comes from good coaching, no doubt about that," Cowley said.
"I'm not going to say it was great to watch because it was tough to watch. But it was a football education for sure."