Arsène Wenger may have attempted to blame Arsenal’s Champions League defeat by Liverpool on a controversial penalty at Anfield last night, but ultimately he was left to rue the naivety of a team for whom the final furlong of the season has proved a bruising experience.

A tally of two victories in their past 12 games in all competitions paints its own picture, but while Wenger will endeavour to rally his players for a make-or-break game away to Manchester United in the Barclays Premier League on Sunday, even the Arsenal manager might be forced to admit deep down that a third successive season without a trophy beckons. “We’ll try to finish strongly, but it will be extremely difficult [to lift the players] because they are extremely disappointed,” he said. “Over the two games [against Liverpool] we feel hard done by.

“For several weeks this team has been shocked because they feel everything is going against us. You lack that little bit of extra confidence after week after week of disappointment.”

Although Wenger accused his players of showing a little naivety against Liverpool, not least in allowing their opponents to score only two minutes after they had scored the equaliser that seemed destined to carry them through to the semi-finals, the Arsenal manager insisted that he had not lost any faith in his young team.

“We came back to 2-2 and had the chance to score a third goal so it was not down to mental strength, it was down to a lack of experience and defensively we made big mistakes,” Wenger said. “We conceded a goal from a corner and for the second goal I feel we gave [Fernando] Torres too much room. This team has plenty of talent, but they lacked a bit of maturity in some situations.”

Rafael Benítez, the Liverpool manager, praised his players for the way they responded to Emmanuel Adebayor’s goal by scoring a third. “When we conceded the [second goal] goal, the belief and quality came through,” he said.