Arsene Wenger warned his young Arsenal side cannot continue to miss "major opportunities" like at West Ham if they are to go on to deliver the Barclays Premier League title.
The Gunners had looked in complete control at Upton Park on Sunday following first-half goals from Robin van Persie and William Gallas. However, Carlton Cole pulled a goal back when rookie Italian keeper Vito Mannone pushed a free-kick into the six-yard box, before substitute Alessandro Diamanti netted a late penalty after Alex Song was adjudged to have tripped England striker Cole.
And Wenger believes his side missed a chance on a weekend which saw both Manchester United and Tottenham beaten, saying: "It is very frustrating. It is, of course, a major missed opportunity. In our job, you do not have this luxury."
He added: "You need to get points when you deserve to get points and sometimes when you don't deserve to get the points.
"We never got them when we deserved them - and that means we have not made the maximum of what we should have done.
"But we have to keep the positives as we played well and are a strong team.
"We want to learn to finish these games off, which is basically the most important lesson of the day.
"We have a great chance [for the title] this year, but you cannot repeat this kind of performance we had and not come out with three points."
While Wenger felt referee Chris Foy was somewhat "generous" with what proved the key decisions, the Arsenal manager called for his youngsters to be more clinical.
"We complicated our game a little bit and had five or six chances in the second half, but we missed the final ball," he said. "That is what we have to learn."
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preliminary live commentary on the nigeria v honduras match at the fifa u-17 world cup, already on at africaplays.come
actually, my opinion is dat arsenal have a good squad and do not need to buy any more players. AW just needs to play the right players in the right positions according to his supposed 4-3-3 formation. the three attackers should be from rvp, bendtner, eduardo, arshavin, vela, walcott and not to include diaby or eboue. the two flankers in midfield from fabregas, rosicky, nasri, eboue, wilshire, ramsey, merida and finally the DM from song, diaby,denilson. i think he would have the perfect balance in his team this way. he should also take some lessons from mourinho in knowing when to put his subs in. they are always coming on when its too late to make a difference or there's nothing to play for anymore. you would have thot that after 13 years in charge AW would know what to do by now.
da team is fighting but no aggression in finishing might cost us. wenger must do the sub at the right time where the subtitute can have enough time to burn and fit into the pace of the game so he can make an impact. otherwise bravo for ur display n mentality. arsene - arsenal 4ever.
da team is fighting but no aggression in finishing might cost us. wenger must do the sub at the right time where the subtitute can have enough time to burn and fit into the pace of the game so he can make an impact. otherwise bravo for ur display n mentality. arsene - arsenal 4ever.
i stand by gunners come rain , come sun . please if you are true supporter not planted one do stand by them both in defeat and wins because i know that we will surely win something this year gunners 4 life
Arshavin plays for himself and dose not try very hard. Needs the reality check of being dropped. If he plays against Liverpool it will intersting to see how many goals he scores this time!!!
But u as a manager, what u changed from the previous mistakes? Show hunger for a win and a trophy respectively. Personally i don't see any weakness in Arsenal team coz if you have players like Song and Fabregas who rotate four opponents on the ball meaning that 10 players are left to play 7 opponents, why can't u get a positive result. The problem is that, the manager becomes over confident when the team scores. that can come up when the team is 4;0 moreover at 90th minute. remember spurs game that ended 4;4. Thanks
Alex, Uganda-Africa
You gotta love the fans of a team, when they hear one reporter say something it becomes their mantra. Get a life, grow some Grey cells. maybe then you`ll all have valid opinions. Or maybe don't buy a newspaper listen to radio or watch tv for 30 years. This weeks opinion everyone got from the media is as if you don't know by now. Arsenal have to work for 90 mins. I Personally like the Ebouie is rubbish, the Adebayor is lazy and Arsharvin is the best player in the world opinions.
Who gives a @#$% anyway? Football sucks, just a load of over rated and overpaid actors.
It was not so much missed chances
Arshavin was lazy all day
they all as a team took their foot of the gas they need to play at full throtle for 90mins + any extra added mins
you cannot take your foot off the gas period they need to get wise and a killer instinct Man u chelsea would have put 6 past W ham in the first half and we must do the same
what is wrong with some arsenal s fans,they seems to think that arsenal team should win every game.i want them to do so as well but there is no such a thing in foot ball,w ham played well yesterday and they deserved the draw,they are a good team even they are in the bottom of the table.bak to those arsenal s fans if you looking at someone to blame back off the usual suspects diaby,eboue...think again at clichy,arshavin,sagna and vermalen s performances yesterday,they weren t better than diaby s one.my point is get behind this team if ur are a true fan,it is for many reasons,this team represent many concepts that are lost in this materialistic world:got principles,give chance to everyone,live in their means,spend wisely,build the future while still competing in the present time...a true fan celebrate a victories admit defeats but still stays behind their beloved team,not slagging players he was hailing the other day,or believe in the theory of other top teams fans buy buy buy
let arsene wenger know he has a good team but not a competitive team, therefore he needs to add four more qaulity players to toughen the current players in the likes of 1-hillario 2-micah richards 3-yaya toure 4-balotelli. thus eboue's less productive at midfield thereby arsene wenger should either let him off or draft him back to right defence to compete wit sagna. possible line up-
hilario
sagna-gallas-vermealen-clichy
cesc-toure-rosicky
rvp-balotelli-arshavin
NEW KEEPER - TWO NEW DEFENDERS - AND NEW STRIKER = SUCCESS Buy in the January window or forget it Wenger!
Please wenger get rid of diaby. He poses no defensive qualities to deserve a place in the starting 11. When we are in control of games the arsenal players need to turn to our captain who orchestrates our attacks.. get the ball to fab and we will absolutely destroy teams. P.S why cant he use ramsay more???
It will be adream for Arsenal to win trophies if they continue to play like that. Arsenal for life.......
Is all very well for Arsene to talk about missed chances but he must also address the weakness of the team which he can do something about. Our goalkeppers are not really up to the stanard needed in the Premier league and the same for some of the defence. So, he can take some of the blame for those missed chances and also why we are letting in too many goals. The keepers etc are in themselves playing the best they can but they are still short of being Premier players.
Situation is simple: if we wanna be in with a chance to win some silverware this year, the team has to prove the last 2 games were just a blip and 2010 is their year, by winning the next 3 crucial games:
- Liverpool in the Carling Cup
- Spurs in the Premier League
- AZ Alkmaar in the Champions League
These 3 home games MUST be 3 victories - simplez!
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