{{Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger apologised to the club’s supporters after the Gunners lost 3-1 at home to Aston Villa on the first day of the Premier League.}}<\/p>\n
Wenger’s side were booed off at full-time, with chants for the Frenchman to strengthen his squad before the transfer window closes on 2 September.<\/p>\n
“What hurts me is to disappoint people who love the club,” said Wenger.<\/p>\n
“I’m here to make them happy and when I do not I can only say sorry, come back and make them happy in the next game.”<\/p>\n
Earlier this summer, chief executive Ivan Gazidis revealed that Arsenal were ready to spend big after an “escalation in our financial firepower”.<\/p>\n
But the only arrival so far is 20-year-old striker Yaya Sanogo on a free transfer from Auxerre, with numerous players leaving Emirates Stadium.<\/p>\n
Wenger confirmed on Thursday that he will attempt to make signings right up until the transfer deadline at 23:00 BST on 2 September, and his team seemed to be in need of reinforcements against Villa.<\/p>\n
Olivier Giroud gave Arsenal an early lead but Christian Benteke equalised and then put the visitors 2-1 ahead before the Gunners were reduced to 10 men when Laurent Koscielny was sent off for a second yellow card.<\/p>\n
Antonio Luna, one of six new signings by Paul Lambert, scored a third to complete Villa’s victory as sections of the crowd turned on Wenger, with anger building as the match reached its conclusion.<\/p>\n
Lambert later said: “It’s never nice to hear it, you need the fans to stick with you. Mr Wenger certainly knows what he’s doing.”<\/p>\n
Wenger felt the side he named was good enough to win the match but confirmed he was willing to invest in new signings.<\/p>\n
“I’m there to buy players, if we find them we’ll do it,” he explained. “I’m not the only one working on that – it’s not my money, it’s the money of the club and we’re ready to spend it if we find the right players.<\/p>\n
“We could have won the game today with the players on the pitch, I’m convinced of that. We started well but after that everything went wrong – injuries, decisions, going down to 10 men and the chances missed.<\/p>\n
“It was a bad day, not on the quality of our display but everything went against us. That [injury to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain] did disrupt us at half-time already and especially when we went down to 10 men.<\/p>\n
“It was difficult but I must praise the spirit – until the last minute the players gave everything and the team showed great quality. It’s a great disappointment but the spirit and attitude of the players was fantastic.<\/p>\n
“I’m unhappy with the spirit the referee let the game [go in], I was quite amazed. But it’s not my job to talk too much about that, I have to take care of the team and, despite that, we could have won the game.”<\/p>\n
Arsenal turn their attention to Wednesday’s Champions League qualifying play-off first leg at Fenerbahce and travel to Fulham on Saturday.<\/p>\n
“We’re not happy, we’ve got to look at ourselves,” said Gunners midfielder Jack Wilshere. “We’ve got a big qualifier coming up and there can be no mistakes now – we’ve got to push on. We’ve got to pick ourselves up.<\/p>\n
“It [the crowd reaction] is understandable, they pay their money to watch us and we need to put in better performances and win games. My message to them is to stick with us – it’s a long season.”<\/p>\n
BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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