Arsene Wenger slammed the poor defensive performance from the Gunners as they suffered a staggering 5-1 loss to Bayern Munich which now leaves Champions League hopes of them hanging by a thread.
Bayern were ruthless to complete the exact full revenge for their 2-0 loss in the first leg of Group F fixture last month at Emirates Stadium. As a matter of fact this latest defeat is the joint-heaviest European loss for Arsenal; the previous one was the 4-0 reverse loss at Milan in 2012.
Arsenal now in a must-win situation for their final two matches at home to Dinamo Zagreb and away with Olympiakos (most likely not less than two goals margin) and also hope for a heavy defeat of Olympiakos against Bayern in Munich. But frustrated Wenger made it loud and clear, another poor performance like this and Arsenal will be out of the Champions League.
“You have to give credit to Bayern for their quality,” Wenger said. “On top of that, we made things quite easy for them with our defensive performance. We were extremely poor defensively. We were not at the races. When we went forward, we had chances but with a defensive performance like that, you go nowhere.”
“I can’t tell you if it’s the worst of my tenure. It will not remain in my memory for anything positive. We have a chance to qualify. It’s a small chance but a real one. We have to realise that with that kind of performance, our chances are at a minimum. We have to give it our all to have a chance to qualify.”
Wenger helplessly watched his squad ripped apart after Bayern got the early lead in the 10th minute by Robert Lewandowski and he suggested, there is now an eminent fear that the Gunners could be dropped to the Europa League
“You know you can’t be too negative, but you also have to face reality,” Wenger said. “Our performance was not good enough. We live in the world where you have to face reality.”
Wenger is now attempting to ready his team for this weekend’s north London derby against Tottenham, but he admitted there is some injury concerns with Héctor Bellerín and Laurent Koscielny, as both the players didn’t feature in this match. Koscielny is recovering from a hip problem; he was in the dugout but didn’t join the warm-up. Wenger had to leave him as a substitute just in name.
“I don’t think Bellerín will be available for Sunday,” Wenger said. “Koscielny has a small chance. We have no more injuries, apart from the one to our heads. We have to focus on Sunday and turn up with a different performance. We are in a strong position in the league.”