Arsene Wenger All-to-Obviously Blames Defense for Anderlecht Draw

Well, Arsene Wenger got this one right. It was the Arsenal defense that blew the game. This must be why they call him the Professor. Here’s what he had to say to the media, as reported by Yahoo News:

"“Annoyed? Yes. But you have to give them credit. They did fight until the end and we gave a poor defensive performance from the first to the last today. We never felt comfortable.“We got punished. A bit of bad luck because the first goal was offside but our defensive performance was not good enough.”"

Of course, being an astute thinker, you have to flesh out why exactly a defense that’s usually so capable was unable to put a 3-0 lead at home to Anderlectht to bed.

The answer is simple: No Laurent Kocielny, no adequate back up and an undersized left back filling in next to a lumbering Per Mertesacker. Essentially, I blame this entirely on Arsene Wenger.

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When Thomas Vermaelen was sold, Wenger did not replace him. Call Calum Chambers what you want, he’s not a replacement for the Belgium international. He’s playing right back because we’re short there as well and the only cover we have at centerback is Nacho Monreal, who isn’t a centerback.

If this defense can’t put away Anderlecht at home with a three goal cushion, how are we going to put away Chelsea, Manchester City, even Swansea? January needs to come tomorrow because we need defensive help. Kocielny is due back in late November and Shad Forsythe has been getting our guys back to us early, but how long until another injury?  We have to be ready for anything and we just simply aren’t.

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