Wojciech Szczesny believes the Premier League's wealth of attacking talent is responsible for this season's glut of top-flight goals.
The 2011/12 campaign has already seen some eye-catching scorelines including Arsenal's 5-3 win at Chelsea, their 8-2 defeat at Manchester United and the champions' own 6-1 thrashing at the hands of Manchester City.
Fulham have also racked up six goals in one match as the Premier League lives up to its reputation for entertainment, leaving the likes of Szczesny picking the ball out of the net more than usual.
The Polish goalkeeper was named Arsenal's Player of the Month for August and September and he kept a clean sheet against West Brom at the weekend, and yet he has conceded 21 times in ten top-flight games. Szczesny puts that down to exceptional offensive play and a string of unstoppable strikes.
“Listen, if you look at the attacking quality throughout the top teams in the league there are going to be goals,” he told the Official Matchday Programme.
“Look at some of the results recently: Man City against United, us against United, us against Chelsea and so on. The players are so good at the moment that you will get these high scorelines. Basically though, as long as you end up winning it doesn’t matter how many go in. You’d rather win 5-3 than lose 1-0 of course.
“I could probably have done better on some of the goals but others were just fantastic strikes and you have to take it. Some of the best goals of the season have been scored past us – the one in Dortmund and probably two from the United game.
"As long as you can’t do anything about it, you have to accept it. I just want to make sure that the ones I can do better with, I improve on.”
Szczesny would be vying for top spot with Robin Van Persie if Arsenal's Player of the Season award was handed out early but the Polish keeper thinks he can do much better.
“It’s difficult to be objective, but I’m trying to be a harsh critic," he explained. "It’s a bit weird because at the start of the season when we weren’t doing very well, I was actually quite pleased with my performances. Now that the team has picked up, I think that my own performance has dropped a little bit.
"I’m happy that we are getting the results now of course, but the fact that my level has dropped a bit is a little bit worrying. I think overall I’m pleased, but nothing more than that.
“But there is a really positive feel around the team now. It was really hard for us at the start but we worked hard, picked up our form and got some results. All of a sudden the mood in the dressing room changed completely.
"We are very positive, looking forward to all the games and I hope we can keep it that way.”
No comments:
Post a Comment