Jose Mourinho: Chelsea will not miss Petr Cech

During those halcyon pre-season days, when everything seemed right with the world, before real life came at Arsenal fast in the form of a vigorous West Ham, Wenger spoke about how he hoped to see more of a goal contribution from his midfielders this season. We are guilty to give them a goal as soft as that, but it was a collective lapse. All three dropped points when they might have expected to win.

Most neutrals will be happy for Wenger to win the Premier League title again, for the first time since 2004, and go deep in the Champions League simply as a reward for all the eye-catching football his teams have played down the years.

“We have to keep our focus”, Wenger said.

With Theo Walcott being starved of the space to run in behind, it made for an infuriatingly impotent portfolio and a demoralising way in which to start the season. If Cech hadn’t come out to claim the ball, Kouyate would still have had a free header and would likely have scored. Arsenal’s marquee signing for a reported fee of about 11 million pounds ($17.3 million) was then wrong-footed by Zarate’s shot from outside the area. “It’s always (about) responding well to accidents. Today we have to look at ourselves and think we were not good enough and not to think that these kinds of things are solutions for us”.

The 28-year-old also commented on the impressive debuts of youngster Reece Oxford and new signings Dimitri Payet and Angelo Ogbonna, “After the game I congratulated Reece and said “Welcome to the Premier League“. They like to push players, we have a few youngsters playing under-21s, which is good. “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger!”

The tables were turned on Sunday by Coutinho’s moment of magic, when the Brazilian took possession and shrugged off a challenge before unleashing a booming shot that grazed the tips of Jack Butland’s gloves on its way in.

But asked if homegrown youngsters, such as Loftus-Cheek, feature in his plans for the upcoming season, Mourinho said: “It depends on him not on me”.

This will not be an easy game but needless to say, Arsenal need a win.

“It worked perfectly for us and I thought the players were outstanding….”

However, Wenger still assured that he would not be bullied into making a new signing due to this loss in the opening game.

Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal started singing in the post-match press conference after watching Manchester United edge home on his birthday, but it was far from pretty at Old Trafford.