In what has become a pattern in recent seasons, Gary Neville tore into the Arsenal players after they were outclassed 3-0 by Man City in the Carabao Cup on Sunday.
Xhaka, Ozil and Ramsey bore the brunt of the former United man's ire, Neville lambasting the trio for not giving their all on the day:
Ramsey. Xhaka. Ozil. You're walking on a football pitch at Wembley. Why are you walking? You're a disgrace. An absolute disgrace.
I don’t even want to talk about them because they’ve been an absolute disgrace. Ramsey and Xhaka walking on a football pitch. Absolutely spineless.
Wenger has responded to the criticism today arguing that you could pick out walking on either team if you wanted and that Neville was singling out his players in order to reinforce his own opinion:
You find in every single game, on both sides, moments where a player doesn’t track. You have to analyse why. Has he made two runs before to go in behind and was exhausted, or did he not track because he didn’t want to? That is different.
On his players desire Wenger was in no doubt they gave 100%, saying that when you lose a big game people always say the players didn't "want it enough".
Wenger called for perspective in the wake of the Gunners' loss, stating that the fact they made it to the final as well as the quality of their opposition on the day as reason to not get carried away when criticising his team:
We got to the final and you don’t get there by coincidence. You have to fight to get there and we did. We didn’t play against a poor team in the semi-final, we played against Chelsea and we have shown that we can fight.
I'm quite amazed at how people analyse; it looks like we lost against a team in division five. We lost against a team that dominates English football at the moment. We have to take a bit of perspective.
Wenger was also questioned on his future at the club but the Frenchman dodged the question claiming that his position was the last worry he had at the moment:
I've turned the whole world down to respect my contracts.
My position is the last worry I have at the moment. My worry is to get the team focused and ready for tomorrow's game.
Arsenal face City again on Thursday night at the Emirates, and wouldn't you know it Gary Neville is the commentator for Sky. Let's hope for Wengers' sake that Ozil, Ramsey and Xhaka bring their running boots.
