Szczesny: Arsenal still ahead of Spurs

Wojciech Szczesny insists the balance of power in north London has not shifted from Arsenal to Tottenham following the Gunners’ derby loss.

Arsenal’s setback at White Hart Lane on Sunday was their fourth league defeat in seven matches this season, which leaves Arsene Wenger’s team 15th on the table as the clubs head into the two-week international break.

Asked about the possibility of Spurs taking over as north London’s dominant team, Szczesny said: “You can’t judge or make such a statement after a couple of months, after a poor start to the season or just one game.”

“Spurs are a great club, they showed today they can play really good football but are they better than Arsenal? I don’t really think so.”

“Of course we are behind in the race because we have lost four games and the likes of Manchester City and Manchester United have lost none.”

“We need to focus on winning every single game now. We have to take it game by game and make sure we stick together and improve our performances.”

“We want to give ourselves the best chance of finishing high up in the table, gaining top four and possibly fighting for the championship.”

Szczesny recognised that Arsenal have struggled to capture the heights of previous seasons during their stuttering start to the season and said their fans deserved better.

“I hope we can get to the level we need to as soon as possible because the club deserves better,” he said.

“The fans (on Sunday) were fantastic and deserve better than they saw. I hope we can improve as soon as possible.”

“We are very disappointed. Maybe it is good that we go away for the international break and forget about it, focus on some international games and when we come back hopefully the performances will be much better.”

Szczesny made a string of brilliant reflex saves against Spurs to narrow the defeat for Arsenal, but was honest enough to hold his hand up and admit he was at fault for Kyle Walker’s winning goal, which was powerfully hit but struck from nearly 30 yards.

He said: “The second one I am very disappointed because I shouldn’t get beaten from that type of distance so the second one I will blame myself.”

“There was a lot of movement on the ball and I reacted too late. I got a touch to it but it wasn’t strong enough to keep out.”

“If you make good saves of course you want to get something out of the game. I made a few good saves but you give nothing to the team because we lost the game.”