Wenger points to fixture pile-up as excuse for Spurs defeat

Arsene Wenger blasted his players after admitting he has “big concerns” over Arsenal’s title credentials.

The Gunners boss screamed and swore during a dressing down which took “the paint off the walls” after they missed the chance to go top of the Premier League by ­surrendering a two-goal lead to bitter rivals Spurs.

It was Arsenal’s third home defeat of the season after reverses against West Brom and Newcastle. Incredibly, leaders Chelsea have lost on the same day every time.

Coincidence? Unlikely. Lack of bottle? More likely. And Wenger’s excuse? His players were tired after a week of international duty.

For someone so intelligent, Wenger could surely come up with something better. It is a line that is starting to wear a little thin.

Every Premier League team has internationals and yet Wenger thinks Arsenal are a special case. Funnily enough, Tottenham also have players who turn out for their countries.

At least Wenger was honest enough to admit he is concerned as to why his team seem completely unable to seize on any chances in the title race and also keep blowing leads.

Wenger said: “We missed an opportunity, to make a difference with the teams behind us.

“It’s a big concern, a main concern. We were 2-0 up and it was all in our hands.

“It’s a strange coincidence of facts that happened and is very difficult to explain, even when you’ve been in the job as long as I have.

“But to completely lose the focus as much as we did and especially the second goal and third goal are very difficult to understand.

“We wanted to keep the urgency and our defensive tightness alive. But it’s not the first time this has happened and it’s one of our weaknesses.

“Many times we have come out and dropped a little bit the urgency when we are ahead.

“We switch off at the back, we’re not there. With five minutes to go you make sure you win your headers when you play at the back and we were unfortunately caught.

“I believe some players could not maintain the pace of the game because they played Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday and it’s too much.

“They have the mentality, they want to win. But they play 90 minutes for their national team on Wednesday night; that doesn’t work.

“Look at the teams around us in friendly games, they come back at us in the second-half and they think they can get away with it but they can’t. It’s ­impossible.”

The Arsenal manager also refused to offer much in the way of praise for his former captain William Gallas – who moved to White Hart Lane as a free agent – after Tottenham’s win.

Wenger added: “We had plenty of chances. He played well but I did not ­especially analyse his ­individual ­performance.

“I feel we could have scored six or seven goals.”