Arsène Wenger lamented the “unusual and massive mistakes” that led his team to suffer a humiliating defeat against Swansea City, leaving Arsenal with eight points to make up on Liverpool if they retain ambitions of finishing in the top four. Sam Clucas scored twice and Jordan Ayew got Swansea’s other goal following a dreadful mistake by Petr Cech as the Welsh club recovered from falling behind to pick up a precious win that moves them out of the relegation zone.
“We made unusual and massive mistakes and that was a killer.” Wenger said. “I think the turning point of this game was when we were 1-0 up, we were absolutely guilty to concede the goal straight away and we have no rational explanation for that. Overall we were not convincing defensively and we were not convincing offensively.”
Although Cech horribly miscued Shkodran Mustafi’s back-pass in the lead up to Ayew’s goal, Wenger was more frustrated with Nacho Monreal for allowing the ball to run out of play for a throw-in seconds earlier. “I was angry because there was no need to let the ball go out,” Wenger said. “We had the ball and could play straight away. When you have a throw in for you, you are nine against 10 on the pitch, why should we put a handicap like that in our own team?”
Wenger admitted that his players are probably suffering from a lack of confidence away from home, where they have recorded only three victories this season, and he also conceded that an error-ridden performance pointed to wider problems. “When you make mistakes, there’s not always a rational explanation behind it, apart from the fact that maybe it highlights a whole lack of quality concentration that we didn’t have tonight,” he said.
Olivier Giroud appeared as a second-half substitute, despite the fact that he is set to join Chelsea following the arrival of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Asked about his decision to turn to Giroud on the eve of his transfer, Wenger said: “It’s a tribute to Olivier because he’s a guy who gave great service to the club, never let us down on the commitment front and saved us many times.”