Szczesny rues Fulham defeat

Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was critical of his team’s performance after they conceded twice late on against Fulham to lose 2-1.

Laurent Koscielny had given the Gunners the lead but following a second-half sending off for Johan Djourou, Steve Sidwell equalised and Bobby Zamora scored right at the death to complete the comeback.

A disappointed Szczesny felt that the north Londoners should have left Fulham with all three points and he blamed his side’s poor defending.

“There was probably some tired legs, but I think probably we should have kept the concentration and kept the focus and we would have been fine,” he told reporters.

“But I would imagine it was a very childish performance in the end from us. It was very confusing.”

“I thought for 85 minutes we defended really well with 11 men and they never looked like scoring and then, when we had to play with 10 men, they looked very dangerous.”

Szczesny also criticised referee Lee Probert, who failed to give a penalty in the first half for a Philippe Senderos challenge on Gervinho and later gave Johan Djourou a second yellow card for fouling Zamora.

“Johan said he barely touched him. The guy (Zamora) seemed to go down very easy. Plus I had the ball in my hands already, which doesn’t help. After Johan got sent off, it was very difficult for us,” he said.

“I didn’t see (the penalty shout) from my end but from what the lads said in the dressing room it wasn’t a penalty claim – it was just a clear penalty. It seems like we don’t get those decisions these days but, hopefully, next time they’ll come for us.”