Arsene Wenger thinks Arsenal duo Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba looked “nervous” in the 3-2 defeat to Manchester United on Sunday.
After taking the lead on 29 minutes through a Lisandro Martinez own-goal, Arsenal found themselves 2-1 down on 50 minutes after Bryan Mbeumo and Patrick Dorgu – the latter an incredible strike – had scored for Man Utd.
Arsenal got back on level terms when Mikel Merino grabbed an equaliser six minutes from time but, just three minutes later, Matheus Cunha scored a wonderful curling effort to give Man Utd all three points.
The Gunners have the best defensive record in the Premier League but Wenger thought centre-backs Saliba and Gabriel had uncharacteristically “nervous” performances.
Wenger said on beIN Sports: “I believe that they [Arsenal] wanted to win the game so much that they lacked a bit of patience in the build up and with the speed of the ball.
“They used a bit too much force and not enough technique. On the other side I believe that Carrick found a good formula and a good balance between defensive stability and good technical level.
“It’s the first time I feel that the central defenders [Saliba and Gabriel] were a bit more nervous and less dominant than they usually are in games.
“With the [first] United goal, Martin Zubimendi makes a mistake but Saliba should not be going in front of him, he should give him support and stay behind him to have the possibility to defend the ball.”
Wenger had said earlier that Arsenal look “miles above” all the other teams in the Premier League with the Gunners leading the way.
But their defeat to Man Utd on Sunday means that Manchester City and Aston Villa closed the gap on Arsenal to four points after 23 matches.
Wenger said: “I would say that Arsenal look miles above everyone else. They look more balanced, stronger physically, better organised, top players in every position.
“Many of the other teams are not of the level they were a few years ago.
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“Man City have less good players than they did before in every position. Liverpool are ntt at the same level. Aston Villa are consistently third in the league so that shows you something.
“I’m convinced that this is Arsenal’s year more than ever to win the title.”
When asked if he felt the nervousness in the stadium, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta said: “I don’t know, but we have to understand that we all want to win and the crowd is trying to be behind the team to make the best decisions and to win the game and we need to go through that.
“We know what the players need and we’re going to be playing much better in the next game like we did two-and-a-half days ago, one of the best and toughest places in Europe to go, against Inter Milan.
“So we know that we were below par, especially in certain individual standards and when that happens the margin becomes very, very close and today they made those margins bigger because the individual quality that they have made the difference in the game.”
