Arsenal legend Ian Wright: ‘This is why I hated George Graham and loved Arsene Wenger’

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Arsenal legend Ian Wright has explained how differently Arsene Wenger and George Graham would have reacted at half-time if they were still at the helm against Leicester City last weekend.

The Gunners conceded very early and it looked like one of those days. We are making it a habit now having done the same against Manchester City and Aston Villa as well in the games prior to the one on Sunday.

Thankfully for Mikel Arteta, his boys turned it around and went in with a 2-1 lead at the break.

Wright has revealed that Wenger would have welcomed the players in with roses if he was still there because of how well they recovered after going down. Graham, on the other hand, would have been absolutely livid.

He said on the Wrighty’s House podcast: “There’s nothing more satisfying than a set-piece working perfectly. Then, we get a penalty just before half-time. All of a sudden, we get the momentum back. We go in 2-1 and we’re literally flying.

“This is why I hated George Graham and loved Arsene Wenger. Arsene Wenger would be throwing rose petals on you and saying: ‘I love you’.

“George Graham would be shouting: ‘sit down, sit down everybody’. He would still be focusing on the fact that we conceded another goal in the first six minutes of the game.”

Arsenal Insider’s view:

That really is a very interesting insight.

Wenger, as many have claimed in the past, was a man of very few words at the break. He would only speak for a couple of minutes just before the players walked back out, and that would have been the case on Sunday if he was there.

Graham, on the other hand, was a lot more vocal. He’d have a right go at the players for conceding so early – even if they had recovered brilliantly as we did against the Foxes last weekend.

That isn’t ideal for a player’s confidence just before he’s walking out for the second half. That’s probably why Wenger is loved by his players even to this day, and hopefully, Arteta is more similar to the Frenchman than he is to Graham.