Wenger curses disallowed goal

Wenger: Turning point

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Arsene Wenger believes his side were hard done by when the referee disallowed what he felt was a perfectly good goal.

For all their possession Arsenal failed to fathom a clear-cut chance in the first half against Chelsea and were punished emphatically when the visitors fired two goals in quick succession five minutes before the interval through Didier Drogba and a Thomas Vermaelen own goal.

Drogba went on to add a third late on but Wenger felt the turning point of the match came when referee Andre Marriner disallowed what he felt was a perfectly legitimate Andrey Arshavin goal minutes into the second period due to a high foot from Eduardo on Petr Cech.

The Frenchman also felt that his side could consider themselves unfortunate to go into the break 2-0 down after dominating most the match.

"I believe that the first part of the game was all us and then their first shot on goal was in and then the second was a misunderstanding at the back between the keeper and Vermaelen and I think he didn't really go for the ball, we find ourselves 2-0 down at half-time," he told Sky Sports 1.

"It's difficult because Chelsea defends well and attack on the break but I think we were very unfortunate to be 2-0 down at half-time.

Frustrated

"Then after the referee cancelled the goal nobody understands still why. What is he doing? I have watched it five times nobody touches Cech, he lets the ball down and we score, he cancels the goal.

"Then of course coming back I think that was a big turning point in the game today. I felt in the first 20 minutes with a better first touch and a bit more belief we could score."

Despite the result Wenger stood by his claims last week when he declared that his side were now ready to win the big games and insisted that Arsenal were not yet out of the title race even though the result saw them fall 11 points behind Chelsea.

"I believe we are, we have nothing to be ashamed of with our performance today," he added.

"I believe that it all went Chelsea's way today and I was not especially impressed with what went on, on the pitch and they took their chances very well and they have, in Drogba an exceptional player.

"But it is down to us to come back into it. From what I have seen today of Chelsea they can drop points."