Petr Cech suffered a nightmare English Premier League (EPL) debut for Arsenal as the goalkeeper’s costly blunder condemned the Gunners to a shock 2-0 defeat by West Ham yesterday.
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But rather than blame the loss on Cech’s blunder, the Gunners boss attributed the meltdown at the Emirates Stadium to a collective lack of composure.
With fans still calling for the club to continue the summer spending, Wenger remained calm amid rumours, per the Guardian, that the Gunners are after another striker in the form of Real Madrid forward Karim Benzema to play either with or instead of fellow France worldwide Olivier Giroud.
“I didn’t see anyone get a grip of the game”.
“We have to keep our focus”, Wenger said. This is a very good start for us’.
But West Ham, knocked out of the Europa League in the third qualifying round by Romanian side Astra Giurgiu on Thursday, snatched the lead in the 43rd minute when Kouyate made the most of Cech’s error of judgement.
“I haven’t spoken to him (Cech) yet”, Wenger told reporters.
“I can’t see many convincing individual performances”.
“In the end we wanted it, but it was not convincing, not agile, not quick”.
“Today we have been hurt mentally and it is a good opportunity to respond“.
Arsenal fell additional behind after Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain gave away possession as the house aspect tried to clear from the sting of its penalty space. We killed ourselves. With the experience we have in our team, it’s hard to understand.
Arsenal had enjoyed a promising pre-season campaign after winning two tournaments and the Community Shield thanks to a 1-0 victory over defending Premier League champions Chelsea. I’m really pleased for the lad and I’m sure all his mentors all the way up, and his family as well, they’re pinching themselves as well.
Arsenal were unable to muster a response as West Ham ended an eight-year wait for a win over their London rivals in Bilic’s first Premier League game in charge. “This is very special”.
“They didn’t have a lot of chances but they scored at the right times and punished us from a set-piece and in the second half when we lost the ball”.
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“People were asking ‘are you sure he is 16?’ It was going to be a risk but he has got something“, Bilic said.
