Wednesday secured their place in the fourth round thanks to Lewis McGugan, who scored a second-half victor to beat Premier League side Newcastle 1-0 at St James’ Park in the previous round. “His positioning was poor during set pieces, and he needs to get tighter to his man”.
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Wenger said he would have “loved” to have won the tie but, referring to his growing injury list, he added: “With the squad we have got now, we can not keep in all the competitions”.
Also, Wednesday managed to limit an Arsenal attack which contained French worldwide Olivier Giroud to just two shots on target, which is a great credit to Carlos Carvalhal’s side.
Sheffield Wednesday will be without the injured Michael Turner, Alex Lopez, Marco Matias and Modou Sougou.
Arsene Wenger felt he took too strong a side to Sheffield Wednesday after Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain suffered injuries.
“There are many good players in the Championship and to play young players against Championship players is very hard because the level has gone up. We are showing a lot of leadership”.
I’m concerned because our next game is a big game on Saturday, we have the Champions League against Bayern Munich coming up. “And while it appears rather harsh to blame the result exclusively on their performances, Wenger claimed that the next generation of potential stars were unable to cope with the demands asked of them”.
“We were not at the level that is requested to play a team of the quality of Sheffield Wednesday”, the Frenchman told reporters after the match. “Everything belongs to the players, they were fantastic, we put a plan together and they did it 100 per cent”. For Arsenal, it’s a chance to reach the quarter-finals of the League Cup and give opportunities for a few second-string players to make their mark, given the fact that Wenger has chosen to rotate heavily in this competition.
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When asked about prioritising the league over the chance of beating Arsenal, the former defender replied: “This is an important game and one we want to win”.
