Wenger Says....Merged with FFCCRAVENCOTTAGES POST

[mrska]

By Wayne Veysey at Emirates Stadium

Arsene Wenger blamed mental and physical fatigue for Arsenal's failure to win against Fulham and claimed that some of his players are so exhausted they are on the brink of picking up muscular injuries.
The Frenchman said his team had to dig deep to come from a goal behind and draw 1-1 against Martin Jol's side following their Champions League triumph in midweek.

"It is a puncture problem," Wenger said in his post-match press conference. "We gave a lot on Wednesday night. Wednesday night and Saturday afternoon is as short [a rest] as you can get. It is not an excuse but an explanation. We want to be in the Champions League so we cannot cry if we are tired. We have to deal with the league game afterwards.

"We lacked sharpness of our mind - a bit mental fatigue and a bit physical fatigue as well.  We lacked a bit of accuracy in our passing today. But we still had the potential to win 1-0, if not 2-0.

"Overall we are still on the way of improvement. Hopefully we can show that on Tuesday [against Manchester City in the League Cup]. I will have to [change the team] because some players are on the fringe muscular-wise.

"You have to accept football is played by human beings and you can drop points against anybody in the league. If you look at the Fulham team sheet they have all international players and good players. It is not a shame to concede a goal against them."

Arsenal remain unbeaten in their last 10 games, a run that has included eight wins, after Thomas Vermaelen made amends for his own goal with a firmly headed equaliser.

"I believe he scored unfortunately because a left-footed player sometimes refuses to play with his right foot. But he showed character to come back and score a good goal. He read the ball well and senses where he has to be.

"The positive is that we have shown again an exceptional spirit and desire. We refused to lose the game. Many players were on the fringes and we had not completely digested the Champions League game on Wednesday night. We had to dig deep.

"Certain circumstances conspired against us. It was the type of game when you didn't want to go 1-0 down. You could feel that if we had to score two it was difficult today."

Wenger had no problems with Fulham's negative approach after going a goal ahead.

He said: "I don't blame Fulham. They did well and are in a position where they need points and I understand that. It is disappointing to drop the points but at least it keeps our unbeaten run going."

[FFCcravencottage]

What a load of crap how is it no one has mentioned how many games we have played this season, ok we never played this week. But we have played probably double what Arsenal have. No one can play that card against us 

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-league/2011/11/26/2775546/arsenal-boss-arsene-wenger-blames-exhaustion-for-fulham-draw?

[Burt]

What tosh.

Our players have had just as tough a schedule.

[Drake44444]

Reminds me of the same thing I read after the Man City draw.

It said fatigue was why they drew at Fulham as they played Champions League that wed prior.

Nevermind Fulham played that Thur, even shorter window before the game.

[PokerMatt]

Yeah and the thing is this was brought up before kick off by commentators and pundits, as if they thought arsenal might be in for a trick one.

At least wenger and his players could go on holiday in the summer, eh? Imagine his complaints if he had competitive fixtures in June!

[BalDrick]

BalDrick says suck my fat one you myopic  twit. Mind you he is drunk

[cebu]

BalDrick says suck my fat one you myopic  twit. Mind you he is drunk

BalDrick may be drunk, but his words seem sober!  :beer:

[RidgeRider]

To be fair, he didn't disparage us at all and only said his team were tired, which they probably were. We weren't coming into the game with a mid week match as they are and he even said they accept they are in the Champions League. I didn't find anything that objectionable and felt it was fair and balanced perspective from him.

Had we had a mid week match as well and he still said the same thing then I would find the same story a bit one sided but was not the case.

[MisfitKid]

091.gif .
World's smallest violin, playing "My heart bleeds for you"

[HatterDon]

The match announcers, one of which was Curbishly, were quite complimentary to Fulham. They constantly cited their organization and teamwork. At the end the non-Curbishly said that although Fulham started the day thinking that a point would be brilliant, we had a right to feel as if we certainly played well enough for all three.

That certainly got my notice.

[GoldCoastWhite]

The match announcers, one of which was Curbishly, were quite complimentary to Fulham. They constantly cited their organization and teamwork. At the end the non-Curbishly said that although Fulham started the day thinking that a point would be brilliant, we had a right to feel as if we certainly played well enough for all three.

That certainly got my notice.

Cheers Curbs !  078.gif

[ScalleysDad]

So who is non Curbishly ?

"I am non Curbishly !"

[Lighthouse]

So who is non Curbishly ?

"I am non Curbishly !"

WE ARE NON CURBISHLY YOU WILL OBEY US OR BE ASSIMILITED.

I AM NOT NON CURBISHLY I AM A FREE MAN.

I AM NON CURBISHLY, NO I AM NON CURBISHLY.

I can see this catching on. Or can I?

[Motown]

In a curious way, I've a grudging admiration for Wenger. He's totally myopic where his players are concerned; any incident is always the other side's (or the referee's) fault. Should one of his defenders kick an opposing player into the upper tier of the Emirates, no problem, said player was overreacting. Penalty award against the Arsenal? Never in a month of dimanches, despite what the TV evidence shows....
Yesterday, Fulham turned up with a plan; we thwarted an in-form side. came away with a point from somewhere where points won't be dropping from trees where visitors are concerned - and might have nicked all three.
Not sure about our substitutions. No, on reflection, AJ was not what we needed at that stage, but there you go.
Let's be fair, they had us under the cosh for the last quarter.
His comments about the tiredness of his players are, of course, laughable - but given the man's history, what do you expect?
Personally, I'm chuffed with the point. :wine:

[MrFantastic]

It is true Arsenal doesn't have players on bench like real madrid or barcelona that they can use in league games and rest those that played in champions league, today Bayern lost against Mainz it is simple players get tired and are a step slower or they can't run as much at the end of the game as they would normally if they didn't play that midweek game, I am so glad that Fulham didn't play europa league game last week than Arsenal would have greater chance of beating us