Wenger bemoans ´poor´ performance

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger slammed the effort of his players after their 4-0 Champions League thrashing at AC Milan on Wednesday.

A brace from Robinho plus goals from Kevin-Prince Boateng and Zlatan Ibrahimovic gave Milan the ideal result in the round-of-16 first-leg encounter, and Wenger was disappointed with the application of his team.

“It’s very difficult to take the performance we’ve given tonight,” Wenger told Sky Sports.

“Defeat can happen sometimes when you play well, but I felt that defensively, especially, offensively and as a unit, we were poor. We were beaten and never in the game. It’s a big shock.”

Wenger said he was concerned by the way his side defended against Milan, with his team’s goalmouth breached twice in both halves.

“It’s a big concern because we were always in trouble with the same problems – (passes) over the top, slow reading the game, slow to respond, beaten in challenges – it was a big problem for us the whole night,” he said.

“We have to take our pain and regroup for the next game.”

Wenger admitted a Champions League quarter-final appearance would be almost impossible, but is hopeful of a better effort from this team in the return fixture at the Emirates on March 6.

“Statistically, it’s too big (a deficit to recover from),” he said.

“We’ll try, but there is very little hope there. The result is massive for them – a massive advantage and very difficult to turn around.”

“We’ll give it our best and I feel that we can’t be worse than tonight, anyway.”

Centre-back Laurent Koscielny was withdrawn due to injury in the first half, adding to Arsenal’s injury problems in defence, with Per Mertesacker suffering ankle ligament damage against Sunderland in the Premier League on Saturday.

“I don’t know (how bad it is),” Wenger said. “It looks like a knee problem, but I haven’t spoken to the medical people yet.”

“He is certainly out for the weekend, and that’s another injury in defence. We lost Mertesacker, we lose Koscielny tonight, and that’s a big concern.”