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Wasteful Arsenal worry Wenger

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-27 13:05

LONDON: Arsene Wenger admitted his Arsenal side cannot afford to continue to let opponents off the hook after conceding a two-goal lead against second-bottom West Ham in a 2-2 draw at Upton Park.

The Gunners were set to close the gap on second-placed English champions Manchester United to just one point after Robin van Persie and William Gallas fired the visitors into a first-half lead in the all-London clash.

But West Ham rallied to claim a draw thanks to second-half goals from Carlton Cole and Alessandro Diamanti and, having seen his side concede a late equalizer in the Champions League clash with AZ Alkmaar last week, the Frenchman admitted his side has work to do.

"We were in control but as long as you don't score the third goal the game is not won," said Arsenal manager Wenger. "In fairness, West Ham did continue to fight until the last minute and we conceded two goals from two set pieces. Generous ones.

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"We are an intelligent team and an intelligent team makes the maximum result with the game.

That is what we did not do," he said after Sunday's setback, going on to cite a fault that has long been a feature of his team's play.

"We complicated our game a little bit and had five or six chances in the second half and we missed the final ball as we wanted to be a bit too complicated and that is what we have to learn."

He said: "It is a major missed opportunity, of course. You don't have the luxury to miss opportunities in our job. You need to get points when you deserve to get points and sometimes when you don't deserve to get the points.

"Today (Sunday) we never got them when we deserved them and that means we have not made the maximum of what we should have done."

Wenger disputed the decisions that led to both West Ham goals, a free-kick and then a penalty conceded by Alex Song for a foul on Cole.

But he said: "We have to keep the positives as we played well and are a strong team. We want to learn to finish these games off which is basically the most important lesson of the day.

"When you have to play a final ball, we had crosses in the second-half, we missed the final ball as we played too late. We have to learn that.

"We missed the moment and timing off the crosses in the second half. We had five opportunities and not one arrived."

AFP