Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was clearly frustrated after his side failed to end a six-year trophyless crisis as they went down to Birmingham City in the Carling Cup Final.

Speaking after the game, the Frenchman explained how his players started slowly, probably as a result of a lot of games played in the months of January and February. According to the Arsenal boss, the Gunners were on top in the second half after equalising with Robin van Persie but having failed to score the winning goal they were punished after a defensive mistake.

Full of praise for Birmingham, Wenger revealed Laurent Koscielny and Wojciech Szczesny are “destroyed” for what happened in the last minute of the game as he added how his job is now to lift them up ahead of upcoming games, starting on Wednesday.

And yet again, the Frenchman was upset with all the chances created and not taken by his side as he admitted it’s part of the game and how his players were nervous when defending set-pieces.

After the game, Wenger said:

I am bitterly disappointed, like the whole team. We had some problems to start the game, the number of games we played caught up a little bit on us. It took us a while to get into the rhythm and pace of the game.

Congratulations to Birmingham, they took advantage of the mistake [and] they took the trophy which hurts us tremendously. We have to be proud of our attitude, continue with our belief, pick ourselves up and face the other challenges we have.

Both of them [Koscielny and Szczesny] are destroyed. I don’t think it’s a good moment for me to add anything. We have to lift them up again and help them, that is what a team is about.

That is part of the game, we had enough chances to kill the game off before. They could only be dangerous, in the end, on free kicks. Maybe we were a bit nervous on it as well.