Wenger blasts ref over late loss

Arsene Wenger has slammed referee Lee Probert after Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat at Fulham.

An injury-time winner from Bobby Zamora has left Arsenal in fifth, one point behind Chelsea, after Steve Sidwell’s 85th-minute header had cancelled out Laurent Koscielny’s first-half opener.

Fulham’s goals came after Johan Djourou received a second yellow card 12 minutes from time which reduced Arsenal to 10 men, and Wenger has hit out at Probert’s decision-making.

“It was a difficult game because it made a difference after we went down to 10 men,” Wenger said.

“In my opinion the second yellow card for Djourou was a foul for us and we had a penalty in the first half not given.”

“I felt the referee got it all wrong – and all on the same side.”

“I think that we wanted to keep the score at 1-0 too much, but when we were down to 10 men it was very difficult because of tired legs.”

Wenger was also incensed at Probert’s decision not to award his side a penalty when Gervinho went down in the box in the first half following a challenge from Philippe Senderos.

“We have to cope with that,” Wenger said.

“But it’s difficult to lose a game like that because we felt that all the important decisions today, like Gervinho and the second yellow card which put us down to 10 men, went against us.

“We had to battle hard and then to lose the game is very difficult.”

“Gervinho did not exaggerate his fall too much. You should ask the referee why it was not given. I’m not the referee, ‘’m the manager, so if you ask me why the penalty was given, what can I say? I don’t know.”

Meanwhile, Zamora has hailed Fulham’s team spirit.

“I don’t know how we’ve done it, to be fair – just hard work and togetherness,” Zamora told Sky Sports.

“We’ve been working hard all season and we haven’t really got the results at home that we’d always wanted but today caps off a good performance and hard work.”

The former Tottenham striker denied recent reports that he had fallen out with the club’s management and was set to leave.

“You guys in the press like to write whatever you want, really, and a lot of it’s been blown out of all proportion, but I’m just looking forward to playing, doing well and hopefully scoring some more goals,” he said.

“I’ve got a few years on my contract yet.”