Arsene Wenger frustrated by Arsenal's defeat to Blackburn

Posted Sunday, September 18, 2011 by YAHOO Sport

Arsene Wenger struggled to hide his frustration after watching his Arsenal side slump to a 4-3 defeat to Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park.

The Gunners led the match twice but left Lancashire empty handed after own goals by Laurent Koscielny and Alex Song, coupled with a Yakubu brace handed the hosts their first win of the season.

Speaking after the game, Wenger admitted he found the result difficult to fathom particularly after producing a strong attacking display

“It is difficult to explain the second-half performance because I feel overall we created many chances," he said. “We had problems getting started again in the second half and we looked as though we had a lack of focus on what we knew they were strong at, and that means free kicks and corners.

“Overall, we lost a game where we scored five goals and that is disappointing.”

The Frenchman also conceded that the defeat was a concern particularly after another poor defensive display, that followed on from his team's last away fixture at Old Trafford where they shipped eight goals to Manchester United.

“You cannot say you have no worries when you see the performance we have just produced today," he said. “The team today was just not defensively solid enough. When you are 2-1 up against Blackburn and you know that if you are solid defensively you will score goals.

“It was not all negatives today. In fact the frustrating thing is that there was a lot of positives as well but the disappointing thing is that we did not have the focus to bring anything out of the game."

The results leaves the Gunners behind Rovers in the table and their manager demanding more from his players.

“Four points from five games is terrible. There is nothing more that can be said. It is just not good enough," he added.

“We are very frustrated but the spirit in the team is quite willing but if you look at the number of goals we have conceded that is not good enough.

The Arsenal manager was also questioned about the increasing focus on his future at the club, after a summer of transfer upheaval and a series of poor results, but he insisted he would continue to do his job to the best of his ability.