Arsène Wenger admitted that Stoke City exposed Arsenal’s depleted defence as too soft during his team’s 3-2 defeat at the Britannia Stadium. It would have taken stereotypical myopia from Wenger to declare anything else after his side’s chaotic loss but the Frenchman’s candour will not dilute criticism of a recruitment policy that has left his squad with this level of defensive cover.
With Laurent Koscielny and Nacho Monreal unfit, Arsenal deployed a rearguard comprising two 19-year-olds, Calum Chambers and Héctor Bellerín, although they were not the only defenders found wanting as Arsenal were blown away in the first half.
“We were not decisive enough in the defensive challenges,” said Wenger. “They [Stoke] started strong, you have to give them credit for that. We were a bit inexperienced at the back. We couldn’t play Koscielny or Monreal and altogether we were a bit soft to cope with what they offered us. Overall we put a lot of energy into this game, like we have always done recently, but unfortunately we missed our start. When we started to respond it was late in the game.”
Mark Hughes explained that his team’s plan was based on exploiting Arsenal’s defensive vulnerability. “We knew that if we could get at them quite early, that maybe that little bit of disorganised that comes from changes in personnel, maybe we could capitalise on it,” the Stoke manager said.
“You’ve got to have an intensity to your play. You’ve got to put balls in to good areas.”
Wenger said his team might have recovered from their sorry start if Chambers had not been sent off in the 78th minute. The centre-back was shown a second yellow card for tugging Mame Biram Diouf, and Wenger insisted that both cautions were excessively severe.
“It was a bad decision,” he said of the expulsion. “If Chambers has to go off today, I can watch the game with you and find more players who had to go too. I don’t think Chambers deserved to be sent off compared to some other people who put arms and elbows in faces.”