Wenger: Our weakness is not in attack

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Date Time C Opponent F A R S
01 Aug 4:15 PM EC Atletico Madrid (H) 2 1 Win
Wenger: Our weakness is not in attack

After seeing his side score 2 goals in the final few minutes of today's match against Spanish side Atletico Madrid, manager Arsène Wenger explained that his side's weakness was not in their attacking prowess.

Wenger saw his side create the majority of chances and dominate possession, but must have also been concerned at some of the cavalier defending that plagued his side last season, a plague that saw them concede an alarming 37 goals in the league.

It was a deserved win for the home side in the end, and the fans would have taken heart from the wave of substitutions in the second half which saw an attacking trio of Francesc Fabregas, Arshavin and Eduardo come on to the field.

Russian playmaker Andrey Arshavin opened the scoring before seeing his side concede a careless goal to level the scores. Another piece of magic from the wizard saw Arsenal take the lead again, but it could all have been for nothing had a free header from Madrid find the back of the net instead of the top of the cross bar.

Wenger said: "The difference is now he knows how English football works. He knows as well he is part of the team from the start, and the team knows how important and how big an impact he can have on the results.

"Arshavin has what you cannot give to a player - he understands when there is an opportunity in the final third, and is certainly dangerous. I believe he can have a big impact his season."

"We had some good combination play and overall I think we deserved to win the game. The substitutions made a difference because of their quality and because when your legs get heavier and you have that quality coming on it has a big impact.

"Today shows we have plenty of offensive players and strikers. Don't forget today we were also without Theo Walcott. If you consider the number of offensive options we have, it is quite decent.

"We have Arshavin, we have Walcott, we have Eduardo, we have van Persie, Bendtner and we have Carlos Vela. To play with Arshavin, Fabregas and Walcott and find the balance is very difficult.

"Our target is to now find a good balance with the offensive players we have, and that is why we could afford to let a striker go.

"We have quite a strong squad this season."

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User Comments

Aaron

Posted on 2 Aug, 2009 at 08:29 AM - Reply

what else is new?

dan

Posted on 1 Aug, 2009 at 11:08 PM - Reply

Good morning Arsene.

Yourmum

Posted on 1 Aug, 2009 at 08:20 PM - Reply

Its about bloody time he noticed!! We've had problems in defence with set pieces for ages!

Tomas

Posted on 1 Aug, 2009 at 07:49 PM - Reply

Don't you guys think that our last season midfield of Nasri Fabregas Song Walcott was significantly worse that 07/08 midfield of Rosicky Fab Flamini Hleb?

Maybe stats don't show it but I could see it in almost every game of 08/09. For me 07/08 midfield was almost perfect. We created chances with real ease as opposed to lots of 08/09 matches with Nasri and Walcott or Eboue instead of Hleb and Rosicky.

We often scored 2 or 3 but weren't as good offensively as in 07/08 season.

Happy Dude

Posted on 1 Aug, 2009 at 06:41 PM - Reply

Well this is his best comment of the summer. He is right, we need defensive minded players and I am glad we conceded that goal today. When we address our defensive short coming, then we can worry about Huntelaar etc.

davy wenger

Posted on 1 Aug, 2009 at 06:07 PM - Reply

YES ARSENE WE ALL KNOW HOW GOOD WE ARE AT ATTACKING BUT ITS DEFENDING THAT IS WORRYING US!

toks

Posted on 1 Aug, 2009 at 04:48 PM - Reply

I strongly respect Wenger and his achievement. But please remenber that as when there was limited amount of money in football and few title contenders. Hence it was easy to beat second rated teams and prepare for the challengers. We need to realise and accept that the game is big now, we need to add big match players with youths. The era of just good tactical aproach is fading out, we are now in the 20th century where money city (sorry man city) money united (the Glazers family) and chelsea drinkers on yatch are contending from all fronts not forgeting moneypool (sorry liver pool) they have all got good coachers then big match players and also refusing to let go of their stars.
Arsenal, please come out with the truth, are the board only sharing the profit or in the best interest of the football club?


Written by Jonathan Chong on Saturday, August 1, 2009

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We had some good combination play and overall I think we deserved to win the game. The substitutions made a difference because of their quality and because when your legs get heavier and you have that quality coming on it has a big impact.

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