Wenger rules out panic buys after Arsenal disappointment

The memories of the Barclays Premier League opener on Day 2, Sunday, August 9, is one Petr Cech will never want to remember.

West Ham’s under-21 captain was the subject of interest from Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United last year but the defender signed a long-term professional contract in January to keep him at Upton Park.

But the Czech global was far from his commanding best at the Emirates, failing to deal with Dimitri Payet’s free kick in the build-up to Cheikhou Kouyate’s header before being beaten at his near post by Mauro Zarate’s low strike.

“I can’t see many convincing individual performances”.

The Gunners had gone into the new campaign with fresh hope for a sustained title challenge following some impressive displays in pre-season, which culminated with victory for the FA Cup holders over defending champions Chelsea at Wembley.

Arsene Wenger stressed that his strikers failed to make an impact as West Ham “defended deep and gained time” once going 2-0 up.

“I think these games are always a bit slow anyway, the players are still finding their feet and fitness”, Terry said. I wanted someone to sit in front (of the defence), to drop into centre-half when we needed – as he’s a centre-half.

They travel to Crystal Palace next Sunday knowing that another defeat would be a disaster and Mertesacker admitted they have to be “cautious” about another slip-up. “I would like to think that we are responsible to buy the players and the coaches, not the media”.

He added: “We were not convincing offensively or defensively”.

“If you cannot win the game, don’t lose it”, he said. “We will respond to that accident”. “It’s a great start for us, but it’s only a start“.

“West Ham were a bit ahead of us because they had played many competitive games”, he commented.

“We gave ourselves a mountain to climb”.

But West Ham, knocked out of the Europa League in the third qualifying round by Romanian side Astra Giurgiu on Thursday, snatched the lead in the 43rd minute when Kouyate made the most of Cech’s error of judgement. “We have to manage him not only on the pitch, but off the pitch for him to stay grounded and progress, because the boy’s got everything”.

“Put it this way”, said Bilic, a hard-bitten former global.