ARSENE DEMANDS FOCUS
Monday, January 23rd, 2012Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has said that Arsenal do need to focus a lot more in the remaining matches of the campaign in order to finish in the top four. Finishing in the top four of the Premier League is essential for a club like Arsenal because they need the Champions League money, which the fourth place finish would ensure.
However, as of now, Arsenal are the fifth placed team in the Premier League and are a comfortable four points behind fourth placed to Chelsea. They lost to Swansea in the latest Barclays Premier League weekend, which also saw Chelsea win the match against Sunderland 1-0.
This meant that Chelsea have now extended the lead over Arsenal to 4 points. Arsenal opened the scoring through top scorer Robin van Persie, but they were unable to keep out to the stubborn Swansea. Swansea were excellent both in attack and defence, and they pressed the ball very high up the pitch. Immediately after scoring, Arsenal soon relaxed their stance in the match, which meant that Swansea were able to capitalise due to the tireless play. It was not long after Swansea equalized. In very much similar circumstances to the Fulham match, Swansea then won the match in a thrilling 3-2 encounter.
“That’s now twice — at Swansea and at Fulham – where we have given the game away. At our level that is frustrating and not good enough. It is down to a lack of composure and the right decision-making. It is alarming because at Fulham we were 1-0 up and we lost the game,” Wenger was quoted as saying on the Arsenal club website. Despite the introduction of Arsenal legend Thierry Henry, Arsenal were unable to capitalise on the mistakes made by Swansea in the final few minutes.
