Arsene Wenger acknowledges Lincoln victory as essential for confidence but plays down Bayern Munich defeat

The Frenchman made it clear he didn't want to 'gamble' after what has been a difficult week for his side and, as such, opted to field a strong starting XI against the visitors

There is a stubbornness about Arsene Wenger. It is one of his greatest qualities, enabling him to stay true to his principles even when all appears to be falling apart around him, but it may have become his greatest weakness. He acknowledged that the 5-0 FA Cup victory over Lincoln City had been essential for restoring morale but remained adamant that the 5-1 defeat to Bayern Munich had not been an embarrassment.

“We were a bit nervous,” Wenger said. “Confidence always drops when you don’t have results. The team was unjustly criticised for the game against Bayern, but we had to get a bit of perspective. I’ve watched this game three times now. We were killed by the referee. We played an excellent game.”

The response to that claim was sceptical but Wenger was persistent. “I would like to watch the game again with you,” he said, “and you would see that the players didn’t let me down. They put in an outstanding performance. I think we got two different five-goal [defeats]. The first one against Bayern I accept we collapsed but when you are down to 10 men against a team of that quality and concede a penalty and have four goals to score it’s not a game anymore.”

That seemed a non-intuitive interpretation of events, but Wenger did at least admit there was a chance of confidence disintegrating after a run of five defeats in seven games. “Of course I didn’t want to gamble today,” he said. “I wanted to win the game and I felt as well that the team had performed well against Bayer. I wanted to give them a chance to get their confidence back, that’s why I retained 90 per cent of players from the starting line-up. It’s always dangerous because confidence can drop quickly.”

Maintaining confidence after letting in five against a superior side is now the task facing the Lincoln manager Danny Cowley, although he at least was able to admit that his side had been comprehensively outplayed after half-time – as is natural given they were playing a team four divisions above them. “It was like he had 15 players on the pitch in the second half,” he said. “And that big clock definitely stopped at some point – that was a hell of a long 45 minutes.

“I think we have to take a lot from our first-half performance,” he went on. “I thought we restricted Arsenal to limited chances and we had a good one of our own.” That was the opportunity Nathan Arnold created for himself cutting in of the right flank only to be denied by a fine save from Petr Cech. “That goes in in the National League,” the garrulous Cowley said.