´Speechless´ Wenger rues loss

Arsenal only had themselves to blame when they squandered a two-goal lead at home to Tottenham to lose 3-2, according to manager Arsene Wenger.

Samir Nasri and Marouane Chamakh put Arsenal two goals to the good but the visitors roared back in the second half to win with goals from Gareth Bale, Rafael Van der Vaart and Younes Kaboul.

He said: “There was a lack of concentration and some errors. In the second half there was a free kick for us and then a goal for them.”

“We could not maintain the focus or the urgency for the 90 minutes because some players dropped.”

“It’s one of the games against them we’ve dominated the most in recent years but we have lost. We lost it and we can only look at ourselves.”

The turning point in the game came when Arsenal were 2-0 up and had a free-kick – and that led to Spurs’ first, from Bale.

Wenger said: “It is difficult to accept that you are 2-0 up and you have a free-kick and get caught on the counter attack.”

“That was difficult to understand and once a team gets back to 2-1 they have hope again. Spurs were dangerous on the counter-attack.”

“We couldn’t take our chances – we should have scored a third goal.”

“We were unlucky and I don’t think they should have had a penalty. Overall I am speechless and it is hard to explain how we lost.”

“I felt some players who played Sunday, Wednesday and today could not maintain the pace. We dropped physically and could not keep up the pace.”