Spin, deflection and misdirection are the order of the day for many interviews after a disappointing result, so how did Arsene Wenger do with his comments after Arsenal’s draw with Spurs?

Let’s break his comments down:

Intensity

“It was a game of high intensity where I felt in the first half we looked always like we could score every time we crossed the halfway line and in the second half we looked a bit more flat physically, a bit more less sharp and we couldn’t find the creativity, the fluency around the box nor the vision we are used to.

“I think our level dropped and we were a bit too stretched as well. Spurs defended well on some crosses in the final 10 to 15 minutes, I feel there were some balls where the fact that despite three tall players we couldn’t make enough of corners and we missed some crosses as well. So overall it was high intensity, technically I think our level dropped in the second half and the desire was there.”

Its’ hard to disagree with this assessment; we weren’t sharp, we weren’t creative and we looked sluggish at times with little movement off the ball. The intensity was high, but not for the full 90 minutes.

Result

“Maybe the result is fair.”

Maybe it is, and you usually find that when you think a draw is fair you know you could possibly have lost the game so you’re happy with a point.

Wanyama

“Wanyama was very lucky to stay on the pitch, of course. 

“A few fouls, the elbow on Walcott for example. We have to cope with that.

“The referee makes the decisions. Still, nobody stopped us from scoring a second goal.”

Yes, Victor Wanyama should have seen red.

While his elbows were naughty at worst it was his persistent fouling that should have got him into the book. Add to that some of the fouls warranted yellows on their own without coming from an accumulation process and you’re left shaking your head at how he escaped any sort of booking.

Penalty

“Contact is not penalty. 

“A foul is a penalty, for me it was a soft penalty, a very soft one. I haven’t seen it again. From the outside he only has one option, to look for a penalty.”

It was certainly a soft penalty but I think we all have to agree Koscielny was stupid and it was a penalty. Mark Clattenberg was so determined not to miss what he knew was coming, he missed Dembele hauling at Coquelin’s shirt in the lead up to the spot-kick award.

In all, Wenger was pretty on-point with all his post-match comments.

The comments about the penalty are the only ones that stand out as being a bit far-fetched, but for the most part, he assess the performance honestly and doesn’t look to deflect blame.