Arsène Wenger feels the heat after Arsenal ship four at Blackburn

Posted Sunday, September 18, 2011 by theguardian.com

An embattled Arsène Wenger saw his side fall to a third league defeat in just five games in a topsy-turvy encounter at Blackburn Rovers and repeated he had no intention of quitting, though confessed to being worried by Arsenal's now-chronic defensive frailty.

"There is nothing to say about my future, my future is at this club focusing on what I do well," the Arsenal manager said. "But having just four points after five games is terrible. It is not good enough, and neither is coming here and conceding four goals. Defensively we are just not solid enough. It was not all negative, the game was frustrating because we did some things very well. We created many chances, for instance, and could have claimed a draw at the end, but I cannot say I am not worried when you see the performance we put in today.

"There was a lack of concentration at corners and free-kicks, and when you are 2-1 up away from home what you must not do is give away cheap goals. We did that, and let Blackburn back into the game. We no longer appear to have the capability to keep our defensive focus for the whole 90 minutes. Of course I am disappointed by our start to the season, and we need quick results now. Spending too much time talking about it isn't going to help."

Wenger may be fed up of conducting inquests into his team's various collapses and nonperformances, though this result will only increase the talk surrounding the club's apparent inertia during the transfer window. Per Mertesacker, the somewhat ponderous centre-half signed on the last day, put a header over the bar with a good chance to score an equaliser in the final minute, while his defensive partner Laurent Koscielny scored one of the two own goals that helped the home side turn a 2-1 half-time deficit into a 4-2 second-half lead. All the while Chris Samba, supposedly an Arsenal target in the summer, put in the sort of defensive performance every manager wants from his captain, and would almost certainly have put the Mertesacker chance away had he been wearing a red shirt.

Perhaps Wenger will have to stiffen his defence again in the January window, though for now Samba and the day's spoils belong to Steve Kean, registering a first win, to lift Rovers off the bottom of the table after facing down a protest march – a rather muted affair in the end – from his own fans. "I was disappointed that people felt the need to demonstrate, but at least in the ground everyone was fully behind the team," the Rovers manager said. "That is as it should be, because I've said all along that we haven't been playing badly. This was the first game where we got anything like what we deserved. I can only reiterate that the backing I have had from both the owners and the players has been rock solid. Some of the criticism has been a little bit unfair, and I think our performance showed that. You don't play like that if there are splits within the club or dressing room."