Wenger: Tottenham deserved the victory

Tottenham Hotspur claimed a 2-0 victory over Arsenal in the North London derby on Sunday and it has to be said that the Gunners were comprehensively outplayed during the encounter.

Manager Arsene Wenger gave an honest assessment following the game by stating that Tottenham deserved to win but dismissed claims that there has been a power shift in North London just because Spurs will finish above Arsenal in the Premier League table for the first time in over two decades.

Wenger on why Spurs deserved the victory, “I felt because they scored two goals and we didn’t, and I felt that it was an even game until they scored the first goal.

“Then straight away we conceded a penalty, it was 2-0 and you could see that mentally we were affected by that and from then on Spurs looked more dangerous. As long as you don’t come back to 2-1, they’re comfortable and we didn’t manage to score.”

When asked about his feelings of Tottenham finishing above Arsenal, he said, “Well done to them, when you start a league, the target is not to finish above Spurs it’s to win the championship so the disappointment for us is not to be in the fight at this part of the season. To fight for the championship.

“Look, in 20 years it happened once. Mathematically it has to happen once, we’re not happy with it, but it’s not to compare us to Spurs, it’s to compare us to where we want to be, and let’s fight until the end and come to conclusions compared to Spurs today.”

Henry unconvinced by Arsenal’s system

Arsenal enjoyed success over Middlesbrough and Manchester City with a 3-5-2 formation but the system clearly did not work against Tottenham Hotspur in the North London Derby on Sunday as the Gunners were completely dominated.

The back three consisting of Nacho Monreal, Gabriel Paulista and Laurent Koscielny were all unconvincing on the day and club legend Thierry Henry believes that the three-man backline is not a long-term solution for Arsenal.

Henry said, “The thing that worries me the most is the way they are playing. The back three looked like it was all over the place.

“Arsene used to say he wanted to play against teams that played against him, not teams that play all at the back, anti-football. What I saw here was, especially in the first half, Petr Cech bypassing the midfield and going long to Olivier Giroud all the time.

“Something I saw that was well prepared was on Tottenham goal kicks they were going really high to force them to go long. You cannot play in a back three and just expect it to work well in three or four games. It takes time. From what I’ve seen I wasn’t reassured because of the way they played.”

Cech angry at Tottenham defeat

Very few Arsenal players came away from the 2-0 defeat against Tottenham Hotspur with any credit whatsoever and goalkeeper Petr Cech was probably the only one who could be proud of his performance on the day.

However, Cech was not left happy with how his side performed on the day and explained that he is very angry with the result. The goalkeeper said, “Angry and disappointed because obviously this is not a game we wanted to lose and this is a very big disappointment for us.

“At half-time I felt we were in the game and in the second half we wanted to improve, we wanted to play to win the game. The second half was our best half - they put us under pressure, created chances and in the end they scored two goals.”

Ian Wright and Piers Morgan slam Arsenal

Arsenal did not convince many with their performance in the 2-0 defeat against Tottenham on Sunday and club legend Ian Wright and celebrity fan Piers Morgan both slammed the Gunners’ quality following the game.

When Mark Chapman asked Wright who he would sign for if the same deal was on the table from both clubs and he was entering his prime, the ex-striker replied, “That’s a really tough question.

“It’s an unfair question. It’s loaded. It’s unfair on live television with my club on the floor at Tottenham flying. ‘To be honest, totally honest, of course right now you’re going to sign for Spurs.

“The problem Arsenal have is the longer they don’t sort what’s going on upstairs, we are no longer going to be able to attract that player because he is going to go to another club.”

While Morgan expressed his displeasure through Twitter,

https://twitter.com/piersmorgan/status/858744762802810883

https://twitter.com/piersmorgan/status/858766691702108163