After the 5-1 humiliation at the hands of Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena, Arsene Wenger almost looked like a ghost, with the colour gone, as if he just wanted to fade away into nothingness for a while, such was the level of performance from his Arsenal players. After another 5-1 defeat by Bayern on Tuesday, this time at the Emirates, though, Wenger was a completely different man, the colour red, defending his players' performance and having a go at the decisions that inevitably made any possible comeback or face-saving victory impossible.
Arsenal vs Bayern Munich highlights
Arsenal played like they tend to play when the pressure is off – and it was, because there was no realistic chance of turning around this Champions League tie after the 5-1 defeat in the first leg – in the first half, with Theo Walcott giving them a halftime lead.
But then, when they were put under pressure in the second half, albeit thanks to the incompetence of the referees, Arsenal wilted again, and that was as good a sign as any that the only way the mentality of the players will change will be if there is a change in the manager.
Wenger, though, insisted on focusing on the decisions that the referee got wrong – and there were a few of them – rather than the capitulation after Arsenal went down to ten men.
The Frenchman believes Arsenal should have had a penalty when Walcott went down under the challenge of Xabi Alonso, while the penalty decision and the red card shown to Laurent Koscielny was an obvious mistake, because neither should have even come into play as Robert Lewandowski was in an offside position.
"I felt that we produced a performance with the spirit and the pride that we wanted," Wenger said. "After that the story finishes badly. Personally, I would say that we really put Bayern under pressure and that we were really unlucky, because it was 100 percent a penalty in the first half after the foul on Walcott. I checked it on television.
"In the second half, the referee killed the game. After that, it was very difficult but the referee was very, very powerful for Bayern.
"At that moment in the game, not only was it not a penalty, but Lewandowski was offside. On top of that, he gave us a red card and that killed us completely. Overall I must say that Bayern are a good side, but they can also say thank you to the decisions of the referee in the second half."
The red card in particular was difficult for Wenger to swallow, particularly after the referee seemed to show Koscielny a yellow for the foul, before the assistant apparently made him change his mind.
"It leaves me very angry, very frustrated and, because we are in a difficult period, it hurts even more," Wenger added. "It's absolutely unexplainable and scandalous. You look at what really happened, and the guy behind the line gives the penalty and the red card when the referee had given a yellow.
"Okay we have to take it on the chin and I have to stand up for it, and I will take a lot of criticism, but it doesn't change my mind. We have to deal with these kinds of situations in this game but that doesn't make them right."
The criticism of Wenger on Tuesday began when a few hundred Arsenal fans marched from Highbury to the Emirates in protest of the manager as well as the majority owner Stan Kroenke, who, it must be said, is as much to blame, if not more, for Arsenal's failings over the last several years.
With Wenger's future still up in the air, this might very well have been his last match as Arsenal manager in the Champions League. "I don't know," Wenger said when asked if he will manage Arsenal in the Champions League again. "You're always worried about headlines.
"I'm here to speak about football, not about my future."
