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Gunners suffer “disastrous” defeat at Milan

Comment: 0 February 16th, 2012 by: admin

ARSENAL took a severe beating from AC Milan on Wednesday, forcing Arsene Wenger to admit it’s all over for them in the Champions League.

The Italian side hammered the Gunners 4-0 at San Siro in the opening of their second round tussle sending the North London side to their worst performance in Europe by far.

Now, the Gunners head back for their second leg meeting at the Emirates Stadium in tatters as Wenger claimed they are as good as out in the tournament.

“We were never in the game and we were well beaten,” said Wenger. “We were very poor both offensively and defensively.”

The French boss added it was shocking to see how they were beaten everywhere. “What made it worse is that we had to chase the game and open up our game and they always cause the same problems with balls over the top.”

But Wenger added they must analyse what happened in a cool manner as he vowed to regroup in their next outings although Arsenal legend Thierry Henry won’t be around anymore.

Henry, who will return to the New York Red Bulls, failed to make an impact against Milan.

“We will focus on our next games. The season is not finished,” Wenger said.

The Gunners’ next match will be a Premier League assignment at Sunderland on Saturday and then they battle the red-hot Tottenham Hotspur a week later.

Despite the setback, Wenger did not blame his players, saying they did not let him down. “We let our ambitions down as a unit. You could blame and blame and blame but we have to stick together and win the next game.”

The loss was the Gunners’ first by a four-goal margin in 222 European ties.

A powerful volley from Kevin-Prince Boateng sent Milan ahead in the 15^th minute before Robinho upped the lead to 3-0 with strikes in the 38^th and 49^th.

Zlatan Ibrahimovich put the icing on the hosts’ victory cake with a penalty kick in the 79^th after he was brought down by Johan Djourou.

“We played a perfect match, especially in defence,” said Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri as his side brace themselves for a quarterfinals berth for the first time since they won the CL trophy in 2007..

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