Arsène Wenger lashed out at the team of match officials from Greece, describing some of their decisions as “absolutely unexplainable and scandalous,” as he attempted to explain away Arsenal’s 5-1 Champions League humiliation against Bayern Munich – the club’s heaviest defeat at the Emirates Stadium.
Trailing 5-1 from the first leg, Arsenal went 1-0 up through Theo Walcott and argued long and hard that they should then have had a penalty for a Xabi Alonso foul on Walcott.
But the tie turned in the 53rd minute when Robert Lewandowski, from an offside position, was fouled by Laurent Koscielny. The referee, Tasos Sidiropoulos, awarded a penalty, which Lewandowski would score and, on the advice of one of his additional assistant referees, he sent off Koscielny. He had initially chosen only to book the Arsenal captain.
Arsenal folded lamentably thereafter – each of the subsequent goals the result of horrible individual errors and/or non-existent defending – and it added up to a 10-2 aggregate defeat, as well as a seventh consecutive last-16 exit for Wenger and his team. Only once previously have a club lost more heavily in the Champions League knockout stages: Bayern drubbed Sporting Lisbon 12-1 on aggregate in the last 16 in 2009.
Wenger chose to overlook the capitulation once his team were reduced to 10 men and take out his fury on the officials. It was Arsenal’s fifth defeat in their last seven matches in all competitions.
“We produced a performance with the spirit and pride we wanted,” Wenger said. “After that the story finishes badly. We were really unlucky because it was a 100% penalty at 1-0 in the first half on Walcott. In the second half the ref killed the game. He was very, very powerful for Bayern. Lewandowski was offside and it was not a penalty and, on top of that, he gives us a red card that kills us completely.
“Bayern are a good side but they can say thank you to the referee for the decisions in the second half. It leaves me very angry and frustrated. Even more so because we are in a difficult period. It is absolutely unexplainable and scandalous. I will take a lot of criticism but it doesn’t change my mind. It doesn’t make them right. The players have not let me down. The referee has let us down.”
Before the game around 200 Arsenal fans marched from the site of the old Highbury stadium to the Emirates, demanding Wenger leave the club when his contract expires in the summer and there was a chant during the match urging the majority shareholder, Stan Kroenke, to quit as well.
Wenger was typically stoic after this latest setback and he insisted Arsenal had shown they could compete with Bayern after they played with tempo and cohesion in the first half.
“I think this club is in a great shape but at this moment it is going through a bad situation,” he said. “What needs to change is the result in the next game. Is the uncertainty affecting the club? No. Tonight, there was no uncertainty in our game. I felt we played very well. It was more the decisions of the ref which killed the game. It’s irresponsible from the referee. We have to stand up and give all kind of explanations but at the end of the day that is the reason for tonight’s result.”