Confident Wenger Urges Arsenal to Bounce Back

Arsene Wenger was criticized by fans and pundits alike for not signing a striker in the summer transfer window.

“The second aspect is that on the first three goals we were really unlucky with the decision of the referee, the second goal was a foul and the third goal was a goal kick”.

Ozil, 27, set up Gabriel Paulista for their first goal before combining well with Olivier Giroud to grab a goal himself as the Gunners went to the top of the Premier League, for 24 hours at least.

“It’s hard to find the words for his form”, Wenger told Sky Sports News afterwards. He was the guy who gave reassurance with his technical security and fluidity.

“We are a bit short, I agree with you, because of the injuries we have”.

The relegation battlers stood off their opponents time and time again, a piece of awful marking barely worthy of the name responsible for the game’s opening goal at least as much as Ozil’s cross.

“I believe what I say to my players is between my players and myself”, he said after the 4-0 defeat at St Mary’s.

“I always defended that point of view, even when you were sceptical about it”.

Kieran Gibbs, Calum Chambers, Gabriel and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain replaced Laurent Koscielny, Nacho Monreal, Joel Campbell and Mathieu Flamini, while Bournemouth brought back Marc Pugh and Josh King for Junior Stanislas and Glenn Murray as they looked to extend their unbeaten run.

Does he remind you of Bergkamp? “But now he’s scoring too”. They missed chance to go top after 0-4 Southampton rout on Boxing Day.

“We started very brightly, but after we conceded there was a slight wobble up until half-time”.

But Wenger played down his side’s chances with 19 games remaining, insisting the aim is to stay with the pack and remain consistent. At the final whistle, he overtook David James’s record for clean sheets in the Premier League by keeping his 170th.

In terms of streaming the game, it can be streamed on the NBC Sports Live Extra and Arsenal Player with a valid subscription or TV service log in. And now we have Cazorla and Coquelin out with long term injuries, Alexis having suffered a setback and, quite probably, Ozil in the red zone, will soon suffer an enforced absence (I hope not but I wouldnt be surprised).

“But it was a great goal because it’s not easy to score against a great keeper like (Petr)Cech”. “We were not good enough to win the game and we have to look at that”, coach Wenger told arsenal.com after the loss. When Arsenal announced an unchanged team the implicit message from the BT Sport commentators was the match should be a formality and Arsenal would climb to their rightful place at the top of the table.