'We were poor offensively and defensively'
on an emphatic defeat...
It is difficult to take but easy to explain because we were poor offensively and defensively cohesion-wise. We delivered an off-the-mark performance completely and that is why we were well beaten today. We gave them always too much room, we were naive. I believe we have to stick together now, recover and produce a much better performance next Sunday [against Chelsea].
on why his team were 'off the mark'...
I don't know. Did we want it too much? Were we a bit inhibited and tense? I don't know. The physical reasons are not obvious because we finished the game quite well and we were unfortunate because we gave the third goal away. You could see we finished quite strong and had we come back to 2-1 earlier maybe we had a chance but at 3-1 it was too much.
on doing transfer business by the deadline...
We are not on any business before tomorrow evening.
on failing to handle Wayne Rooney...
I would say they had other players who gave us some problems, not only Wayne Rooney. We gave them too much room everywhere and afterwards Rooney takes advantage of it. We conceded two goals which were 'corner for us, goal for them' - two goals, the second and third. I believe it was much more with our positioning and the intelligence of our positioning that we were wrong.
on the context of the title race...
It is a massive blow and a massive disappointment. But we have to recover from that, that is part of top-level football.
on a possible lack of belief or commitment...
I believe we had no cohesion defensively or offensively. The players wanted to win, they are really down. This team has spirit, a good attitude mentally, and it is very difficult to say straight away after the game why we were not at all at our level. We were naive.
on whether it means they are not as strong as he thought...
You always have to answer these sorts of questions [after a defeat]. Man United, in the last six away games against a top-four team, they got one point. Today is the first game in seven they won away from home against a top-four team. You could have said before that they were naive but they are not. They were better than us today for two reasons: one, they played well and two, we were not at our level. Why? It is too early to analyse that. I believe there are some mental reasons in there but it is difficult to say.
on next Sunday's game at Chelsea...
We have to focus on delivering a completely different performance because today we were never close in our marking and you do not win big games like that.
on whether the result was linked to the FA Cup defeat...
No, not at all. I would not like to go into individual analysis but some players did not play at all last Sunday and they were not at their best today.
on bouncing back like they did after the 3-0 Chelsea defeat...
We need something special now to stay in the race, of course. I am conscious of that.
Quelle: arsenal.com
