Arsenal slumped to another humiliating 3-0 loss at the hands of Pep Guardiola’s runaway league leaders, Manchester City, and Arsene Wenger later made the bewildering claim that his players produced a ‘huge’ performance as they were brushed aside the second time in four days.
While speaking with correspondents following yesterday’s loss, Wenger chose to praise his players after yet another harrowing night at the Emirates Stadium.
He said: ‘It’s tough but it’s explainable after what happened on Sunday and the consequences of the hype about our performance on Sunday and it hits you but I think the players put a pretty huge performance in today but unfortunately we had some weak defending.’
Wenger now faces another critical seven days; his side travel to Brighton on Sunday before flying to Italy to face AC Milan for the first leg of their Europa League last 16 tie.
And the Frenchman has challenged his side to emerge stronger from their tumultuous few days to prove they have the minerals to play for Arsenal.
‘What we have to do is stay together and focus and work even harder to get the confidence back. The confidence is low and that is always dangerous. But you get out of it by staying together. They have to show now that they can play for Arsenal.’
While speaking on Arsenal supporters turning on his team, Wenger added: ‘Overall you want to earn your fans with the quality of performances.
‘That has to come from us that. Of course, we focus on the next game and continue to put the effort we’ve put in tonight. We played twice against the best team in the country at the moment. We have quality and we want to show that.
‘We can doit, of course. Confidence is that you know that you have done it before and my confidence is in the quality of the players.’
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