Arsene Wenger amazingly insists Arsenal are in ‘great shape’ and ‘produced display we wanted’ despite 10-2 Bayern Munich Champions League thrashing
Gunners chief whose job is surely on the line said he was 'absolutely revolted' by referee who sent Laurent Koscielny off
DELUDED Arsene Wenger lost the Euro plot last night as he declared: “This club is in great shape,” after a 10-2 aggregate humiliation by Bayern Munich.
The fuming Arsenal boss oversaw the heaviest defeat by any British team in Champions League history.
Yet he refused to even discuss his Emirates future and insisted last night’s 5-1 hammering was all the fault of Greek ref Tasos Sidiropoulos.
“I think we can compete with Bayern Munich and we have shown that tonight in the first-half,” Wenger amazingly declared.
“We produced a performance with the spirit and the pride that we wanted.
“This club is in great shape that at this moment is going through a difficult situation.
“We really put Bayern under pressure but the referee killed the game tonight and that was absolutely scandalous.
“Bayern are a good side but tonight they can say ‘thankyou’ to the referee for the irresponsible decisions in the second-half.
“I am absolutely revolted when I see an attitude like that and I am sorry for the people paying a lot of money to come and watch these kind of games.”
The Emirates was half empty at the final whistle after five Bayern goals in a devastating second-half spell prompted forlorn chants of “We want Wenger out”.
But the stubborn Frenchman has no intention of standing down and snapped: “You are always worried about your headlines, but I am here to speak about football, not about my future.
“I know we will take a lot of criticism and we have to take it on the chin, but that won’t change my mind about tonight because we were really unlucky.
“We have to stand up and give all kind of explanations but at the end of the day the referee is the reason for this result.
“There was no uncertainty in our game. I felt we played very well. That is what leaves me very angry and frustrated.
“We knew before the game that it was very difficult to qualify. We wanted at least to go home feeling we dealt with the situation with pride and commitment and we have done that.
“The fact that the end result will not highlight the quality of our performance was very disappointing.
“We had a deficit of four goals and we were down to ten men. We had to go forward knowing that we would be caught on the counter, but if we didn’t attack people would ask ‘why did you at least not try to score?’ We were in an impossible situation.”
Wenger was particularly with Laurent Koscielny’s 53rd minute sending-off for a foul on Robert Lewandowski after originally only showing a yellow card to the Arsenal skipper.
“In the first-half it was a 100 per cent penalty on Walcott that was not given and then they gave a penalty when Lewandowski was offside.
“On top of that the referee’s assistant behind the lines gives us a red card when the ref had given a yellow. That kills us completely.”
“After that it was very difficult in the final 20 minutes when you have no hope to qualify any more and Bayern bring on fresh players.”