Wenger – We were ‘caught out’ against Chelsea

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger believes that if his side are to avenge their 1-0 loss to Chelsea last Sunday, they must learn from their mistakes.

The north London side fell to Guus Hiddink’s Blues in the Premier League after Diego Costa’s first-half strike sealed the points for the visitors.

It was a moment from captain Per Mertesacker, however, that changed the entire approach and outcome of the game.

Early in the game, Costa was played through on goal and caught out of position, Mertesacker committed to attempting a last-ditch slide tackle and in turn, took the Spaniard out.

The ex-Werder Bremen defender was awarded a red card and Arsenal faced an uphill battle for the remaining 70 minutes, which they could not quite defeat.

Wenger, as reported by the club’s official website in his pre-match news conference, claimed that these mistakes ‘happen’ in football, because of the competition.

Ideally I don’t want anyone to make a mistake but that is part of defending and we were caught on the counter-attack and in a bad position.

It is easy to look and explain on the screen during the game or after it, and anybody that understands football can explain that. But when you are down there on the pitch, if you are caught a fraction out of position it is impossible to correct. That is what happens and I have to accept and live with it.

We forget the amount of times Mertesacker saves a goal from going in and that happens. The risk is part of the game and you have to feel comfortable with that. Mistakes are part of that competition but we learn from defeat.

We have learned from the performance on the day and we had great spirit, a great team attitude and a response but we came out of a game which we have not played. We were down to 10 men and 1-0 down so it was very difficult.

The Gunners will look to overturn their recent fortune when they take on Championship side Burnley in the fourth round of the FA Cup at the Emirates Stadium.