It is never easy for any side to recover from a thrashing defeat especially in English soccer where criticisms and appraisals are always sky high. Arsenal’s last defeat to Bayern Munich is still in the memory of each fan hence it would also be affecting morale of the whole side and manager Wenger understands this problem of performance pressure hence he has already said that it would not be easy for them to overcome Bayern defeat.
If we look at Gunners next game, they are going to meet non-league Sutton in the FA Cup on Monday night. Even if the Sutton is not a premiere league club yet it can definitely capitalize on the state of morale whole Arsenal dressing room is passing through. To tackle this, Wenger has called all the positivity to come back with the side and help them. As far his strategy for the next game is concerned, Wenger would land the strongest team on Sutton’s 3G artificial pitch to avoid any controversy after a possible loss which Frenchman obviously does not want at the moment.
Like any other intelligent manager, he refuses to blame any single player for the defeat, perhaps, for him, it was a collective failure and they should come though out of it collectively as well. Replying over the questions that how fast his team can shake off such a lashing defeat, he replied, “You keep that with you for your whole life but overall, on the other hand, in life if we dwell too much on the past we forget to prepare for the future. Part of a successful life is to basically deal with disappointments and focus 100 percent on what is in front of you and show you can deal with that.”
“When you have a heavy defeat like that it’s difficult to come out on one individual. You look at the way we conceded goals and you can as well criticise some other players. But overall for every single player it’s always to try to get up to the next level and he is like everybody else. I would say it’s more about character and being united because it’s important you do not get in a blame culture and focus completely on being united to respond well.”
Next few games will decide if Wenger is able to bring his side off Munich trauma or they need few more games to forget what happened to them in the Champions League.
Arsene Wenger: