Arsene Wenger Admits That He Has Made Some Errors

It is not too often that Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger lets down his tough exterior. No football manager will admit too readily to making mistakes, but one of the last anyone would expect to do so is the Frenchman.

Since arriving in North London all of 13 years ago, Wenger has often been viewed as myopic in his views—his club, his players and himself do no wrong—there always seems to be someone else to blame.

He has become infamous for "not seeing the incident."

However, even he could not fail to see that his team were underperforming at the start of the season and indeed for a few months into the English Premier League.

In a frank interview with French magazine L'Equipe, Arsene Wenger has held his hands up and admitted he has made some mistakes and at times questioned whether he was doing things right at Arsenal.

The Frenchman said: “It wasn’t so much in my choice of teams that I made errors. I have been doing that for 35 years now and, even if I am not invulnerable, I do know what I am doing.

“But I did make a mistake in perhaps underestimating the harmful effects of last season, especially the loss of the title. I asked myself a lot of questions during the close season about the influence losing the title in the last two months might cause.”

Football followers and most certainly Arsenal fans will remember the club's brilliant start to the campaign only to end in sheer disappointment.

At times the injury to Sagna has been pointed to as a cause. Others say it was the injury to midfield maestro Tomas Rosicky, while more still will point to the Birmingham game in February where Eduardo suffered his horrific injury, Clichy gave away a last minute penalty to lose two points and William Gallas threw a tantrum in the middle of the pitch.

Many point at Wenger's decision to put out a weakened team against Manchester United in the FA Cup, which resulted in a hammering for the Gunners.

The Arsenal manager then proceeded to a controversial area of Arsenal's team this season—the midfield.

He has been widely condemned by pundits, ex-Arsenal players, and fans for not strengthening his hand during the summer transfer window after losing some key personnel.

Wenger said "We lost Hleb, Flamini and Rosicky. There was a midfield for me to rebuild. Should I have anticipated Flamini’s departure? I couldn’t, because I really didn’t think he was going to leave.

“The Adebayor business: ‘I’m going, I’m staying, I’m going, I’m staying’ was also an important factor. One thing followed another. Earlier this season, our game wasn’t there. Even the people who love Arsenal were saying: ‘This is a disaster.’"

The Frenchman clearly echoes the sentiments of many Arsenal fans at the time who were sure Flamini would stay at the club where he had an immense 2007-2008 season. It was not to be, and he is now plying his trade with AC Milan.

Wenger's view of the Adebayor events seem to have annoyed the Frenchman and by his own words, he was unsure whether the Togo man would stay. His indecision certainly did not help preseason planning.

At times, Wenger claims, he wondered how a team that was close in personnel to the previous season could under-perform so much at times.

"You wonder why, with the same players, our game could crumble so much. The staff and I wondered whether we had made mistakes, if the training was being done badly.

“The most worrying match was our 3-0 defeat at Manchester City in November. That was one loss too many. We hit the bottom. But, just after that, we won 2-1 at Chelsea and I thought my team were not ready to totally go under.

“The barometer is confidence and when that seizes up...now we are unbeaten for 18 Premier League matches and that leaves with me with a lot of regrets.”

The demolition to Manchester City at the Eastlands in November obviously served as a major wakeup call. Since then, Arsenal have gone on the current longest unbeaten run in the league.

The Gunners have cleared up some of the ills at the back and have so far only conceded four goals in the League in 2009.

At times during the season there were serious doubts being raised over Arsenal's most successful manager, with boos often ringing around the Emirates and support for him among fans seemingly wavering.

“I don’t mind criticism,” Wenger said. “Win or lose, I try to look in the mirror and think I do the job as well as I can. What you cannot fault is my commitment. When the results are not at the right level, people have the right to criticise. I know what I do and why I do it."

To this, Wenger backs his decision to rely on the young players at the club instead of bringing in an experienced head in midfield.

He added: “I think I have been tough because I have continued to believe in this team when nobody else did.

“And I remained faithful to my policy when everyone told me I was heading straight for a brick wall. People reproach me for not having bought Gareth Barry or Xavi Alonso.

“But I am a prisoner of my own policy. Buying Barry or Alonso is killing Alexandre Song, Abou Diaby and Denilson.”

However, the Arsenal manager is aware that this did not work from the very beginning and he was widely criticised for his policy, a criticism he was aware of.

“I stood back from the criticism. I am not running after personal glory. Everything I do is for the club, the players and the supporters.

“You can’t do a public job in a big club, not win matches and say they [critics] are all imbeciles.”

Things have changed for Arsenal since the turn of the year and the club are now clear of Aston Villa and Everton in fourth, quarter-finalists in the Champions League and in a semi-final against Chelsea in the FA Cup.

Wenger points to the penalty shoot-out against Roma in the last sixteen of the Champions League as a key moment for him and his team.

“When I look at that match, we are away from home and missed the first penalty. We had kids taking the penalties, yet still managed to win. There is a key moment in all stories and Rome was ours.

“We were not losing before, but we weren’t convincing. Since Rome, we are scoring again, and we are better linking up as a team.”

He continued, “We believe in our qualities and our strengths. I believe this team has mentally grown this season. We were under a lot of negative pressure but we always came out and just kept going.

“The fact that we are remarkably consistent shows we have quality. That is no coincidence.”

While it may not be an overly overt admission of guilt by the Arsenal manager he does admit to making some wrongs, something that cannot be easy for a man like Wenger.

Many Arsenal fans were questioning was he becoming deluded in his policies—clearly he saw that things were not all rosy at Arsenal, and there were problems of his own making.

They say to fix your problems, half your battle is to see and admit them in the first place so Arsene Wenger is on the right track.

Arsenal may not be firing on all cylinders, yet but the murmurs of disquiet have died down in recent weeks and Gunners are once again singing loud and proud that "There is only one Arsene Wenger."

The addition of a Champions League or FA Cup trophy in the next few weeks may well just see to this chant turn back into a roar.