No crisis here, insists Wenger

Bristling Arsene Wenger today dismissed suggestions of a crisis of confidence at Highbury after Arsenal tossed away a two-goal lead against Sunderland in the Worthington Cup and suffered their fifth defeat in six matches.

Boss Wenger was not so much concerned by his reserve team making a third round exit from the League Cup competition to which he has never paid more than scant regard but when asked if confidence at the club might be affected by the mere statistics of recent results he could hardly disguise his irritation.

“That is newspaper talk and they can say what they like, it doesn’t bother me,” said Wenger.

“Don’t get me started on that subject but I must tell you that of the five matches we have lost two have been Champions League games which had little or no impact and now another defeat has come in the Worthington Cup when we have been without 10 (of our best) players.”

Wenger admitted his only regret about departing the Worthington Cup is that more chances have been lost to blood some of his promising youngsters.

He will no doubt retain the backing of the many good judges who also believe Arsenal’s brilliant football which won them the Premiership and FA Cup double last season and launched them to a glorious start in the current campaign, will not be submerged by a sticky patch of indifferent form and ill-luck.

But at the moment Arsenal are embarrassing their supporters with so many enigmatic performances and while football remains a game played in the head almost as much as on the field, no setback is ever going to be a positive factor.

Arsenal now face a critical clash with Newcastle United in the Premiership at Highbury on Saturday and defeat in that one will surely have the fans fearing the good times may have rolled by.

Less than 20,000 turned up last night and even though it was well known both sides would field shadow squads, the attendance would surely have been much bigger had Wenger’s team been in winning form.

There were 11 changes from the side that started Sunday’s 1-0 win at Fulham with Robert Pires continuing his comeback from last season’s serious knee injury and Giovanni van Bronckhorst starting his after a similar problem sustained a month earlier.

They combined for the first goal after just 11 minutes when Pires smashed in the Dutchman’s pulled-back free-kick from 29 yards and when Francis Jeffers, having a rare start in the designated first-team match, neatly slipped home a second on 33 minutes it looked like plain sailing.

But to the delight of Sunderland’s new boss Howard Wilkinson his own “deputies” responded with a thrilling second half show that stole victory - his first since taking over from sacked Peter Reid last month – with a hat-trick of headers.

Scot Kevin Kyle thumped the first on 56 minutes after Arsenal’s brittle defence failed to heed the lesson of Marcus Stewart’s propensity for flick-on headers at corners. They got away with it once but not a second time. And later, Stewart was to have an even bigger effect.

He nodded in youngster Michael Proctor’s right wing cross with 20 minutes left and when Proctor, in his full debut, popped up on the left to deliver the next service just two minutes later, Darren Williams applied the final scoring touch.

Wilkinson said: “We moved things about a bit at half-time because we had to stop them (Arsenal) going forward from full-back.”

Wilkinson made nine changes from the side that started last Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Charlton with Stewart one of them having been dropped by the new boss following a dismal show in the 1-0 home defeat by West Ham.

“He’s been low on confidence and I know that having spoken to him after the West Ham game, but Marcus was always a good goalscorer with Ipswich and showed why at Highbury.

“Considering the team we put out has so much inexperience and had not played together before, they all did very well. It will raise morale among those who played and hopefully carry over to the ones who did not so that it helps us in the Premiership.”

As far as Arsenal are concerned, Wenger hopes not. He said: “The positives were the way Pires and van Bronckhorst showed they are getting sharper and fitter all the time, but we were naive to lose the game although unlucky as well.

“I don’t think we deserved to lose and I’m disappointed for the young players most of all.”