Arsenal must put the Chelsea match behind them and move on when they take on Swansea City Tuesday night at the Emirates knowing that anything other than a win could destroy the team psychologically for the rest of the season, and even perhaps hinder their best chance of a trophy being just one match away from an FA Cup final against either Sheffield United or Hull City.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger called the 6-0 loss to Chelsea an accident that in no way should impair the rest of the season telling the Independent:
“An accident has happened, that doesn’t mean that you’re not a good driver,” Wenger said. “It just means that we have played about 40 games this season and it’s not what happened on Saturday that reflects the quality of this team. We have 62 points that we earned hard with quality games and that’s what we want to focus on, to get back to that quality.”
The fans of course will be looking for more than words after the Chelsea loss and it is up to Wenger to motivate the team, and absolutely ridiculous to blame the early kick-off for the loss. “The common thing was that it was a 12.45 game and twice we were caught at the start of the game,” he said. “We think about that and at the moment there’s no rational explanation other than the quality of our opponents and that we were caught at the start of the game. Why? We don’t really know.”
No Arsenal fan is worried about the excuses for the club losing against big teams, and only wants them to bounce back with a big win Tuesday night.
“The crowd knows that it is a very important game and I’m confident they will be behind our team,” Wenger said. “The crowd acknowledged, since the start of the season, that the team’s attitude was absolutely spot on, that they have given absolutely everything. You cannot fault this team for not wanting to do well.”
Centre-half Laurent Koscielny will be missing through injury with Thomas Vermaelen likely to take his place. It is also possible that Kim Kallstrom will play his first match since joining the club at the end of January.
“There will be some refreshment because we have some players who have given a lot,” Wenger said. “But in other areas it’s not so possible. We will try to find the right balance.”
