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Wenger: Shock draw led to 'psychological damage' | With Manchester United dropping more points than Arsenal in yesterday’s Premier League action, Gunners boss Arsene Wenger realizes that his team’s title hopes have not suffered all that much numerically.
However, in his post-match press conference, the Frenchman acknowledged that psychologically, the 4-4 draw against Newcastle having led 4-0 at half-time will be a huge blow for his young squad.
“Mathematically two points, psychologically the damage is bigger tonight because everyone is very disappointed in the dressing room. Only the future will tell,” Wenger said about the club’s prospects.
Wenger’s men were cruising at half time with a nearly unassailable lead of four goals but major cracks began to appear in their defense once they were reduced to 10 after the dismissal of Abou Diaby early in the second period.
The midfielder pushed Joey Barton after being the recipient of a dangerous challenge from the controversial Englishman and created more trouble for himself by shoving aside Newcastle skipper Kevin Nolan as well.
Referee Phil Dowd later let Nolan get away for a push of his own on Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny and frustrated the visitors with two soft penalty decisions against them.
The Gunners boss was noticing all that and brought that up in a very subtle manner during his interview.
“I was surprised by both decisions. But I am not the referee and I don’t think my opinion is very important now because we cannot come back and change it.
“(It was a completely) unnecessary sending off and I believe Barton was very lucky to stay on the pitch (because of) his tackle on Diaby,” he added.
Although Wenger backed Diaby for being unlucky, he admitted that his side’s excessively defensive mentality following the sending off facilitated Newcastle’s comeback tremendously.
“We were worried too much on protecting our lead after that because we were down to ten men. Instead of continuing to play, we invited pressure.
“It’s very frustrating because we played a good game and we had an opportunity to take three points in the title race,” the manager explained.
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