Arsenal’s plans began to unravel within minutes, when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, in the role of playmaker, was forced off. Minutes later disaster struck as his replacement Theo Walcott suffered a similar fate.
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Goals from Ross Wallace, Lucas Joao and Sam Hutchinson stunned the Gunners and booked the Owls’ place in the quarter-finals.
“It was a bad night at the office”.
Wenger has often blooded his young players in the second-tier cup competition with varied success but has rarely criticised their application having promoted them from the much-heralded Arsenal academy.
Sterner tests await Arsenal next, with a crucial Champions League trip to Bayern Munich sandwiched between league matches against Swansea and Tottenham in the coming weeks.
“We are ready to play against the Premier League teams, with the way we play”.
The 29-year-old said Arsenal’s fighting mentality will be crucial if they are to lift the league trophy for the first time since 2004.
Although Arsenal fielded youngsters such as Alex Iwobi and Glen Kamara, they still had a strong defence, including World Cup victor Per Mertesacker and French global Mathieu Debuchy. “They were not ready to play at this level, none of them. His positioning was poor during set pieces, and he needs to get tighter to his man”.
“The only negative from the last week is that we lost a few players through injury”, admitted Wenger.
Arsenal will wait 48 hours for the result of scans on England internationals Walcott and Oxlade-Chamberlain.
It was Wednesday’s second Premier League upset in this season’s competition, following their third-round win at Newcastle United. We don’t want to lose a player for three to four weeks.
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“But at the moment I must say Mikel is still here as a football player”. The Gunners lost their two crucial players to injury, whereas even after enjoying more than 70% possession, Wenger’s men could not produce anything to match the hosts. “We lost the two players and after that, we were not good enough” he said.
