The Blues demolished Gareth Southgate’s side courtesy of
a Saloman Kalou brace and goals by Florent Malouda, Frank Lampard
and Juliano Belletti. The league leaders achieved the win despite
having a number of key players out injured including Petr Cech,
Ricardo Carvalho, Joe Cole, Didier Drogba, Michael Ballack, Ashley
Cole and Michael Essien.
Furthermore, the Stamford Bridge side have often struggled at
the Riverside stadium and indeed, suffered a 3-0 defeat at the
hands of Middlesbrough only two seasons ago.
However, speaking to the club’s official website Wenger revealed
he felt the result was unrealistic and that Boro has simply
suffered a bad day.
“For me, big results like that have no meaning. 5-0 Is not the
difference between Middlesbrough and Chelsea,” said the Gunners’
boss, “I watched the first 20 minutes and you could see that
Middlesbrough has one of these days. They had a bad day at the
office today.”
Wenger also hinted that Luiz Felipe Scolari’s side had enjoyed a
great deal of luck in the game, esepcially in front of goal.
“Every little deflection went for Chelsea and they didn’t ever
need to get out of second gear to win the game,” said Wenger before
concluding, “I don’t believe we saw the real Middlesbrough today,
they are a good side and it is a difficult place for everybody to
go.”
Arsenal are scheduled to visit Middlesbrough on 13 December in a
fixture which saw them beat the Gunners 2-1 last season.