Arsene Wenger spoke about his frustration after Arsenal’s draw with Crystal Palace, and hinting that their title chase is over.
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Their title charge is all but over and goalkeeper Petr Cech, who should have done better with Bolasie’s late leveller, acknowledged Arsenal missed their chance after leaders Leicester had drawn at home to West Ham earlier on Sunday. They are 13 points behind the Foxes with five games left and even face a fight to stay in the top four. ‘With his team trailing 3-2 in the must-win game against West Ham, the manager’s first change was to send on midfielder Aaron Ramsey’.
And if not, what repercussions might that have for these Arsenal stars of the future?
“Maybe we could have stopped the shot, but I will have to see it again”.
“We have another home game on Thursday night and had to prepare for that”.
“But we can also look forward, with that point, to getting towards mid-table which is where I think we belong”.
The Gunners were favourites for the league in January but a string of awful results in recent weeks have ended any chance of a first title win in 12 years.
They almost got it when Palace were caught napping when a quickly-taken free-kick by Ozil allowed Sanchez a chance to grab his second but his header crept wide of the far post, but whilst it was still 1-0 the away side had a sniff of a point and half-time substitute Bakary Sako saw a header from a Cabaye corner tipped over well by Cech.
“For me, my battle is against relegation now and we are kind of safe, that is what I know”.
“Arsenal is a good club, don’t get me wrong”, said Adebayor, post-match. They played deep and they defended well, and they got us on the break.
He told the BBC: “It is very hard, we had a lot of possession but did not make enough of it”. I’m responsible for the result and I think I’m the first person who is frustrated.
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Arsenal drew level on points with Manchester City, which beat Chelsea on Saturday, but Arsene Wenger’s side has an inferior goal difference. “At the moment it is about being together and giving our best until the end of the season”, he stated. “I want to give people the chance to play in that semi-final. We need to get ourselves up there and there’s this big game for the club and our fans at Wembley”.
