Premier League – Wenger fury at ‘scandalous’ decisions

Managerial reaction from the Premier League, with Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger incredulous at Liverpool‘s ‘offside’ goals.

Arsenal 0-2 Liverpool

Arsene Wenger: “When we were down to 10 men we conceded basically two offside goals, and that’s just not easy to accept … The result is very harsh, overall we cannot say that at the moment we are very lucky but as well I believe the goal was offside today and that is absolutely scandalous, that every single decision in the last three or four months you cannot say it rains, as you said, it pours. I always feel under pressure but not more than usually. I think the target is to have a good team and good players. You can spend money and have a bad team. You want the supporters to be happy and when you don’t win the game you can understand that they are not.”

Kenny Dalglish: “Obviously we are delighted, it is a very difficult place to come that everyone knows about. We knew anyone that they did play would stand up for them and play well. I thought it was a fantastic game of football – we are delighted to have won, we probably just about deserved it. We never lost a goal which is good for a start. We know what the boys are capable of and it is just about getting them trained to play that way. I think you have seen the difference with an extra week and they were very impressive again.”

Chelsea 2-1 West Brom

Andre Villas-Boas: “In the first half, we suffered a little bit from anxiety because we suffered the first goal too early and we couldn’t express ourselves. I think it has nothing to do with the impact of the changes we made. Our half-time talk was for the players to free themselves from the anxiety they were suffering, because the public was anxious and the players were anxious and you still have 45 minutes to play and anything can happen – and it did happen.”

Roy Hodgson: “Certainly there are a lot of positive things from last week’s game and this week’s game. But it was disappointing to lose. For 60 minutes we did quite well. On another day, like last week, we could have come away with a result. We got in behind them on plenty of occasions and could have scored more than the one goal we got.”

Sunderland 0-1 Newcastle

Steve Bruce: “We’re massively disappointed. The domination we had in the first half and the chances we created; we needed to score and take advantage of the opportunities we had and if you don’t score you don’t win a football match and we’ve been punished. In this league, the way we dominated parts of the game, we should have taken those chances because you know that you’re not going to get the chance to keep producing them time after time.”

Alan Pardew: ” I thought we controlled the game in the second half. We were outstanding. The team were outstanding, the individuals were outstanding, great support and we got a great win today. It’s a great start for us. There’s been a lot of criticism but we’ve got four points from two really tough games. So we are really pleased tonight, we’ve got Fulham at home next week and who knows, we could be top of the Premier League after that!”

Aston Villa 3-1 Blackburn

Alex McLeish: “The vibes I had been getting was that (his home debut) was going to be something for me to really look forward to. I wasn’t – some people might have headlined on me being worried – but I wasn’t worried. I don’t like to use that kind of term. I was looking forward to it. It was a proud moment for myself and my family. It was terrific. Everybody likes to be loved. We know what football is like. It’s a game that can be fickle at times. I am like any manager on the planet, I’ve got to get results. But it was great and the Villa fans were excellent.”It was a good result for us with some really good moments in the game.”

Steve Kean: “We started the game well enough but then Agbonlahor scores a great goal. For their second we are disappointed because we’d mentioned that Heskey has got that ability just to drop into the hole and just drift off. I think a deflection goes off Pedersen straight to him but then it was a good finish. I thought we played ourselves back in the game very well and scored a very good equaliser. “After that we played well, we are in the ascendancy, we were on top, but their third goal was a killer for us, on another day maybe it would be flagged as offside.”

Everton 0-1 QPR

David Moyes: “I said to the players in the dressing room that I was disappointed with most of them but not Ross (Barkley) – he played really well. I thought what we missed today was people who could make opportunities and maybe take one themselves and I think Ross looked the most likely player to do that. He needs a big pat on the back, he’s not long 17 and he did well. We hope he’s going to follow in the footsteps of one or two others that I’ve brought through here.”

Neil Warnock: “We have had a bit of a nightmare since the takeover on Thursday. We have had a virus in the club and three lads went down yesterday. DJ Campbell had to be sent home. He collapsed. Taarabt and Connolly had it but we played them, and then Bothroyd woke up with it this morning. To get a result like that in those circumstances, I have got to praise all the players. We were resolute today. It is a great result and we have really messed a few coupons up this weekend.”

Swansea 0-0 Wigan

Brendan Rodgers: “I was very proud of the team today. We grew again from Monday night and showed great qualities on the ball. As a team we were very, very good. We created a lot in the box but at this level you need to put them away. I thought a point was the least we deserved. We created a number of chances and we were just waiting for one to go in. It’s a mark of the confidence of the team that for long spells today we were outstanding.”

Roberto Martinez: “When you miss a penalty and hit the crossbar twice, then you might expect to win the game. If you play that game ten times again then you’re likely to win it. We grew into the game second half and looked a real threat, and I thought that we dropped two points today. They were so arrogant on the ball and that’s the biggest strength you can have in football. I felt it was a really difficult game today but our concentration was excellent. Their squad is well balanced and I believe Swansea City will be very, very competitive this season.”