Ray Parlour has admitted that he wasn’t convinced by Shkodran Mustafi’s Arsenal debut in Saturday afternoon’s 2-1 victory over Southampton.
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“We all have the same goal – our goal is the Champions League”, he told a news conference ahead of the game.
The breakthrough came at the death after Jose Fonte was penalised for tangling with Olivier Giroud in the box, with the Portugal defender becoming the latest player to be punished for holding in the penalty area in light of stricter Premier League directives this season.
Wenger signed five players in the summer transfer window as the Arsenal manager addressed some weaknesses in his squad. “When you lose your first home game you can not afford to drop points in the second home game because it creates a little bit an anxiety level at home and that’s not what you really want”.
Kieran Gibbs’ early slip soon presented United with an away goal and thus burst the bubble, but the fall since then has been much more precipitous for Arsenal. Dusan Tadic’s free kick was pushed onto the crossbar by Petr Cech but the ball came back down off the Arsenal goalkeeper’s back and into the net.
Sanchez rifled in the rebound from Arsenal’s first shot on target.
Wenger’s contract with Arsenal expires at the end of the season, but he said his situation does not put him under extra pressure to finally deliver the Champions League title.
“I think a 1-1 draw has to be considered a good result, but I think we started the game a little sloppy”, he said. “It gives players more confidence to get to where we want to be”, said Wenger.
For the last 16 years in succession PSG’s opponents Arsenal have reached the second stage of the competition, only to suffer the frustration of defeat in the first knockout round for six seasons in a row.
While Arsenal are now sixth in the table, Southampton are in the relegation zone with just two points from four games, but Puel refused to be downbeat. “We had a slightly tough start with a few players late back after global duty over the summer. Good football, good possibilities”.
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Winning the Europa League three years in a row with Sevilla is a remarkable achievement, and three straight third-place finishes with Valencia in La Liga before that was impressive too.
