By Oliver Platt
The Gunners manager has acknowledged that his side’s game-to-game consistency has not been good enough after they were knocked out of the FA Cup by Blackburn on Saturday.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has admitted that he must rebuild his side’s confidence if they are to have any chance of success against Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
The Gunners’ hopes of securing silverware this season took another blow when they were knocked out of the FA Cup by Championship side Blackburn on Saturday.
And Wenger has acknowledged that their game-to-game consistency and mental focus has not been good enough ahead of the first leg of their last-16 tie against Jupp Heynckes’ Bundesliga leaders on Tuesday.
“It is vital for us to fight for silverware,” Wenger told the club’s official website. “Unfortunately [the FA Cup] will not happen for us now and we can only look at ourselves and not complain about anything else. We have to come out with a strong response on Tuesday.
“First you have to rebuild the confidence because we are not playing against Blackburn in midweek. We play Bayern Munich so a lot of confidence will be needed.
“We were on a high [before Saturday] because we played well at Sunderland last week and the team looked happy and full of belief but we couldn’t maintain the focus.
“The top level is about consistency in every single game and that’s what we could not show. Coming after the Sunderland game we came out with a flat performance and that shows that, mentally, we are not capable at the moment of preparing in exactly the same way for every game.
“The players are really hurting but you have to take it on the chin and come back with a strong response. That’s all we can do.
“I think we have a great team but Saturday shows that we still have to show more maturity on the mental front. We have to understand what it means to win big games. Blackburn was a big game for me. But it is important that we come back and respond well.”
