When Arsene
Wenger trudged down the dressing-room tunnel at half-time, he looked
like a man who was entering the sunset of a distinguished career.
Arsenal were three goals down, their fans were numb and silent and the
Stoke hordes were gloating fit to burst.
Forty-five
minutes later, with his side falling just a stride short of an
extraordinary recovery, the manager’s head was higher. Yet he knew he
had suffered a deeply damaging result. To make his mood still worse, he
must have known that the score flattered Arsenal; that their recovery
owed more to happy chance than to an urgent search for self-respect.
Wenger
delayed public criticism of his own team, initially offering a
relatively tepid: ‘In every single game, you have to be committed and
focused from the first moment.’ Later, his reaction was more scathing.
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