Arsene Wenger: “I’m disappointed and determined to put things right”

Wenger continued: “We played with a desire to win the game with an offensive team”. We have to respond.

Speaking to Sky Sports after the defeat, which saw fans chant “You’re not fit to wear the shirt” at players, Wenger said his job was to get the fans on side as quick as possible.

A victory was important for Arsenal as they won only two games since January after Andros Townsend, Yohan Cabaye and Luka Milivojevic netted three goals for Crystal Palace.

“But I understand also the frustration of the fans because they are such a big club and they want their team winning”.

“After this kind of number of years, to see that we’ve lost a match the way we’ve lost it’s obviously quite unsatisfactory”. We are in a hard position.

Arsenal controlled possession against their 16th-placed hosts, having 72% of the ball, but were unable to make that dominance count. “It wasn’t us at all”.

“I felt that we created quite unsafe situations but defensively we were exposed at times and offensively we couldn’t finish”, Wenger said. “You could sense that from the kick-off”, Theo Walcott, Arsenal’s stand-in captain, said.

“We thought we’d bounced back well against Manchester City and West Ham at home, but tonight that wasn’t us at all”.

After another shambolic performance and result, Arsenal’s hopes of qualifying for the Champions League next season took another massive blow. We knew we had to win the game.

Arsenal fans will remain optimistic that Mustafi can recover his Gunners reputation in a similar manner to Laurent Koscielny but at the moment, that looks unlikely.

“It is just a matter of how they want it”. The manager who usually answers pressers with eloquent and cordial responses in constrast gave sharp haiku-length answers.

While the players went down without a fight, their travelling supporters refused to leave quietly.

Not a problem, until you learn that the club failed to nominate a captain for the second half. It should be up to the owners. “All 11 of them tonight”.

“It was a pathetic showing”.