It was a horrible Wednesday night for Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, to say the least. After Arsenal lost to Bayern Munich 5-1 at the Allianz Arena, Wenger was visibly shaken, looking clueless in the post-match press conference. The Frenchman did not take too many questions – only three, in fact – before Arsenal’s media manager pulled him out. Here’s what he said:
“Well, it was a strange game because in the first half we played quite well and we had two good chances just before half-time. And after, we got [a] few blows, the first of losing Koscielny [to injury] and then we conceded two goals. Especially after the second goal we were really badly down.”
The scores were level 1-1 at halftime, before Arsenal were blown away by Bayern Munich in the second half. Robert Lewandowski headed the second goal for his side, before Thiago Alcântara scored a quick brace to make it 4-1. In the end, substitute Thomas Muller made it 5-1, with Arsenal staring at their seventh straight knockout from round-of-16 in the Champions League.
“The real problems were after the third goal. We lost our organisation and we looked mentally very jaded and vulnerable from that moment onwards. The last 25 minutes were a nightmare for us. We looked like we had no response. We collapsed,” said Wenger.
Koscielny’s injury early in the second half was the first of many blows, according to Wenger, that ruined his day. “Of course, it affected the game. If you ask me would I love to keep Laurent Koscielny on the pitch? I would say yes. After that it is really difficult to gauge the real impact. The fact is we have to cope with the result. But no matter what we say now, it will be turned in a way that’s detrimental to us. We had an extremely bad result tonight,” he said.
The manager summed up that the loss was owing to his side’s lack of organisation and vulnerability. “I think two goals were difficult to swallow. It looked like we lost our organisation. Not only did we lose our centre-back, but after the third goal we had a combination of mental and organisation problems. Before that we controlled them quite well,” said Wenger, in the press conference that lasted just over three minutes.
