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London: Arsene Wenger was left frustrated at Valencias tactics after seeing his Arsenal team slide out of the Champions League in Spain.
The Premiership leaders were defeated 2-1 on the night by the Spanish champions, thanks to two goals from Norwegian striker John Carew.
The Gunners spent the final half hour desperately trying to grab the equaliser which would have got them into the quarter-finals.
And Wenger argued Valencia used unacceptable tactics during the closing minutes.
When it was 2-1 there it was no game any more because they spoilt the game, Wenger said.
They laid down and stayed down and there was no fluency, it was difficult to play football.
I would like to check how many minutes the ball was in play from 2-1 onwards.
Wenger refused to accept that the defeat and Arsenals exit from the tournament was a true reflection of his teams performance.
Arsenal have learnt the hard way that it is a huge step up in class to play in and win the Champions League.
We are very disappointed, he added. We were on top of the game in the first half but didnt take advantage of it.
Valencia had one shot on goal in the first half and we found ourselves 1-0 down at half-time.
Maybe we lost the game when we got it back to 1-1 because we dropped too much physically.
We didnt create any more chances and Valencia were stronger physically than us a reversal of the first half.
When you dont qualify, everyone is responsible, the manager, the players and the coaching staff, we are all in the same boat.
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