Five days after after slumping to a 2-1 defeat to Olympiakos in the Champions League, Arsenal cruised to a 3-0 win over Manchester United to move above the Red Devils on points.
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It was revealed at the start of the season that Carrick and club captain Wayne Rooney had approached Van Gaal as they were concerned that the dressing room was “flat”.
However, there was certainly no talking down the importance of a result that puts them two points off leaders City.
“He has a little groin problem and unfortunately he goes to Chile”, said Wenger.
Wenger had seen his own position come under scrutiny following the debacle against Olympiacos, where stand-in goalkeeper David Ospina dropped a corner over the line during the 3-2 loss as Arsenal conceded a third goal moments after drawing level. “I was surprised – not performing our game plan, not the will to win”.
Speaking straight after the news of Brendan Rodgers’ sacking filtered through, Wenger said: “I’m always sad to hear this”.
“Earlier in the week we had won against Wolfsburg in the Champions League, coming from one goal behind, and the team was feeling good before the global break, but then we had those frightful 20 minutes”.
He was also candid enough to say he had no idea why the first 20 minutes of the match unfolded in the way they did.
“I don’t think so [that <strong>Van Gaalstrong> is too cautious], but it’s unusual that against strong teams they’ve got good results and with weak teams they’ve had difficulties”.
The Dutchman said the defeat had come at the worst possible time with the players away on global duty and not playing in the league again for two weeks.
Van Gaal, who left Morgan Scheiderlin on the bench, made a double change at the break by replacing Matteo Darmian and Memphis Depay with Antonio Valencia and Marouane Fellaini and his side improved in the second half.
“The way we started was so without emotion and that kind of stuff – you can not expect that”. We have prepared ourselves to play more compact and not losing our aggression.
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“Before the game our goal was to keep the top spot of the Premiership, but it wasn’t our day as we saw from the kick-off”.
