Wenger: United win would boost us
Wenger conceded yesterday his side — who will be without injured skipper Cesc Fabregas after he suffered a recurrence of a hamstring problem on his return to the Nou Camp — could do with something positive to reflect on.
“We need it, I must say, because we need help. We have been touched severely recently and we are of course chasing after a win of that type,” said the Arsenal boss.
“I have said since the start of the season that we will go for all of the competitions. We have got two left and we lost one in the last minute, we played another, against the super favourite of the Champions League, and we lost under special circumstances.
“We need to keep the right attitude to turn the luck around on our side a little bit. We are disappointed, but we want to focus on our next target, and we have big targets in front of us.”
Wenger feels Fabregas could struggle to make Arsenal’s next Premier League game at West Brom.
“I don’t have any regrets about playing him in Barcelona. He said he was fit. When Cesc Fabregas is fit, you play him,” Wenger said. “Cesc is very disappointed because it is becoming a little bit of a problem for him to have a recurrence of his hamstring, but it’s a very superficial one.”
Arsenal could also consider an emergency loan as cover for goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, who went off after only 16 minutes against Barcelona having injured his hand when making a save from a free-kick.
“He has a dislocated finger with a tendon problem and we need an assessment of a specialist to see where we go from here,” Wenger said.
“He had a scan and is out for a while, for how long I can’t tell you.
“We will look for an emergency keeper and I have somebody in mind, but it won’t be in time for this weekend.”
Wenger also labelled UEFA arrogant and a “dictatorship” as the fallout from Arsenal’s defeat to Barca continued.
The Gunners manager and midfielder Samir Nasri have been charged for “inappropriate language” towards Swiss referee Massimo Busacca after the final whistle at the Nou Camp.
“We are out of the Champions League, we have lost one of our big ambitions, we have been punished with a lot of damages and on top of that, we have to say sorry to UEFA.
“We have done nothing wrong. When you have a football game of that stature, you cannot come out with decisions like that and show a lot of arrogance on top of that. We can all understand that we can make wrong decisions, but after that it becomes dictatorship. Its not any more common sense.”
Fabregas, meanwhile, has broken his silence on the events that saw his team crash out of the Champions League to Barcelona on Tuesday night. In a heartfelt and at times confusing mea culpa, Fabregas admitted that he knew “the game was over for me” when he injured his hamstring after just 15 minutes but still carried on playing.
He also suggested referee Massimo Busacca’s decision to send off Robin van Persie early in the second half was ‘strange’ although stopped short of blaming the Swiss official for the Gunners’ exit.
Fabregas went on to claim full responsibility for the result and said he wants Barcelona to win the Champions League final in Wembley in May.
“Football isn’t being fair to me or Arsenal,” Fabregas told Spanish newspaper El Confidencial. “Everything that has happened has been very tough. Lots of punishment. I just want to wish Barcelona the best of luck and hope they go as far as possible.
“It was the worst day of my career. I just want to apologise to all the Arsenal fans. I take full responsibility for us going out.”
There were concerns that Wenger had taken a huge risk by starting with Van Persie, who had not played for nine days and Fabregas, who had missed 13 days. Perhaps the most astonishing revelation from the Spaniard is that he knew he was injured early on but refused to come off.
“On 15 minutes I felt a pinch but I had to carry on, he said. “I knew right then the game was over for me but I wanted to help the team. It didn’t turn out well.”
He ended up playing for 77 minutes before he was replaced.
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