Arsene Wenger was blasted by his own fans — and even skipper Robin van Persie — as chants of ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’ echoed around the Emirates.
Supporters lost patience with Arsenal’s boss after his substitution of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for Andrey Arshavin just minutes before Danny Welbeck’s United winner.
TV showed Van Persie mouthing ‘Oh no’ to the manager’s decision. But Wenger hit back: “Alex had started to fatigue and stretch his calf. He was sick during the week. You have an 18-year-old kid making his first Premier League start and a player who is captain of his country and they are querying the substitution? Let’s be serious. I’ve been a manager for 30 years and have made 50,000 subs. I do not have to justify every decision I make. I stand up for it. “I can understand the fans are upset about a substitution, especially when it doesn’t work. That means first I made the right decision at the start of the game. People pay for their tickets and are free to express their emotions.? We cannot dictate behaviour to people. But that doesn’t mean they’re always right.” Arsenal is now five points behind fourth-placed Chelsea and their Champions League hope is fading away. I am really disappointed because we had a difficult first half. We were nervous technically and not at the level we want. We came back with a fantastic fighting spirit in the second half. We had the chances to win the game quite comfortably but United are a bit more mature in every position than we are.”