2008-11-17 : Against Aston Villa

Wenger: We were punished for a mistake at the back

Dear Supporter,

Our performance on Saturday was not good but it was the kind of game where you can win 1-0. Could we have lost the game in the first half? Yes. But instead we lost it when we looked stronger in the second half. It was the kind of game where you cannot afford a mistake at the back and I believe we were punished because of that.

I feel we were a bit unlucky as well on the first goal because we had Bacary Sagna down after getting injured. For the second goal there was a blatant foul on Carlos Vela on the edge of their box. Instead of having a chance to equalise from a free-kick we are then 2-0 down. Sagna's injury is quite serious by the way and I expect him to be out for a few weeks. He has hurt his ankle.

We beat Manchester United last week and then lost this week, while Villa beat us after losing against Middlesbrough and Newcastle. Top-level performance is about consistency and at the moment we are not consistent enough to produce that kind of performance week-in week-out.

You have to accept that the game is played by human beings and sometimes physically they have a drop. It is very difficult for us to have a rational explanation about what happened against Villa. I believe that the team have the desire but like a few other times this year it is unexplainable why we don't really play at our 100 per cent potential.

I have to say Villa played well and they deserved to win but I don't want to talk about them too much because I don't know them very well. On Saturday they played well but I saw their game against Middlesbrough on tape and they could have lost by six or seven so it is very difficult for me to assess them. They have a big potential if you look at the performance against us.

Finally, I have been asked a lot about possible transfers in January but it is too early to answer that question. We are mid-November and we have to see where we are at the end of December. At the moment, speculating about transfers won't help us.

Thanks for your support.