Arsene Wenger has taken responsibility for Arsenal’s disastrous start to the Champions League with a 2-1 defeat to Dinamo Zagreb.
However the manager refused to say that the fault lay with the six players he brought in to his side to face the Croatian champions. Wenger rested first team regulars Petr Cech, Francis Coquelin and Aaron Ramsey for the opening fixture and the move seemed to emphatically backfire as the hosts cut Arsenal to ribbons on the counter.
Club captain Mikel Arteta was one of several to struggle in a game marred by a foolish sending off for Olivier Giroud, another of Wenger’s replacements. The manager though, maintained the blame belonged on his shoulders.
“When we don’t win I have to look at myself,” he told BT Sport. “Deeply I don’t believe that the loss is down to the fact that we changed players. But we haven’t won so I’m in the same boat as the players.”
Arsenal seemed taken aback by the energy and determination shown by Dinamo, unbeaten in 42 games, with Giroud in particular struggling to deal with his own poor performance. As his frustration grew he earned two avoidable bookings but Wenger maintained that his side were the recipients of several poor refereeing decisions.
“It is not the way we wanted to begin the competition,” said Wenger. “We were a bit unlucky. We faced a Zagreb team who were committed. We gave it all until the end but unfortunately couldn't come back.
“The first yellow for Olivier Giroud is a foul for us and the second is an accident. They got away with obvious fouls many times.
“We have enough games to come back. We focus to win our next home game and I'm sure we can beat Zagreb at home.”
