Arsene Wenger has bemoaned Arsenal’s bad luck after being defeated by “two offside goals” for Manchester City.
After a fine first half in which Theo Walcott fired a counter-attacking Arsenal into the lead inside five minutes Arsenal tamely collapsed in the second period, with a Leroy Sane strike moments after the interval sparking a revival in the City side as Wenger’s men retreated into their shells.
Raheem Sterling struck the winner on 71 minutes, collecting a superb crossfield ball from Kevin De Bruyne before taking on Nacho Monreal and striking low past Petr Cech.
But both goals saw marginal offside decisions go against Arsenal, first as Sane was deemed onside when Silva played his through ball though replays suggested part of his foot may have been past Laurent Koscielny. The Spanish midfielder intervened in controversial fashion for City’s winner as well, seemingly running in front of Cech and attempting to divert Sterling’s shot.
Speaking after the match Wenger said he was “very frustrated” by the officiating, adding that neither City goal should have stood.
“The two goals are two offside goals,” he told Sky. “Enough is enough for us, we got some bad decisions throughout the season. Today I look at the goals, they’re both offside.
“The second one is five yards offside. The first one is still offside. But what can I do? We have to live with that and look at ourselves and analyse why we lost the game.”
In his post-match press conference Wenger added: “Referees are protected very well, like lions in a zoo.”
Defeat at the Etihad capped a miserable week for Wenger, whose side had similarly thrown away a 1-0 lead at Everton that would have taken them top of the Premier League to lose 2-1.
It leaves the Gunners nine points off leaders Chelsea and nervously looking over their shoulders at Tottenham and Manchester United.
However Wenger put his side’s difficulties down to a fixture list that has demanded they travel to East London, Basel, Liverpool and Manchester in the space of 15 days, a period in which the Arsenal manager has done little to rest key players.
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“It’s a shame because in the two games we were 1-0 and lost the two games 2-1 and I believe that we were quite in control and in the second half we suffered after their first goal for 20-25 minutes.
Wenger added: “Same result but it was not exactly the same pattern. On Tuesday night we conceded two goals on headers. It’s difficult as well because we played four games out of five away from home and had a very short recovery from Saturday to Tuesday after playing away in Basel.
“You could see today that physically the second half was a bit more difficult.”
