Liverpool will see ‘real’ Arsenal at The Emirates, says Wojciech Szczesny

Wojciech Szczesny has warned Liverpool that the “real” Arsenal will line up against the Reds in their FA Cup fifth-round clash at Emirates Stadium on Sunday.

The Gunners suffered a humiliating 5-1 loss to Brendan Rodgers’ men at Anfield last weekend, with the Reds surging into a 4-0 lead within 20 minutes before the north London side managed to regroup and limit the margin of defeat.

We want to recover as soon as possible and it is a good chance that we play them a week afterwards

Wojciech Szczesny

Arsene Wenger’s men were also on the receiving end of a 6-3 rout at Manchester City earlier in the season as their normally solid defence crumbled against the likes of Sergio Aguero and Alvaro Negredo.

But Szczesny, who kept a clean sheet in a goalless draw with Manchester United on Wednesday, described the Liverpool loss as an accident and vowed the Gunners would bounce back this weekend.

“It will be a big game for us because we conceded five against them and it was a little bit humiliating,’ Szczesny is quoted as saying by the Daily Mail.

“We want to recover as soon as possible and it is a good chance that we play them a week afterwards.

“I would like to say it was a one-off, but there were two of them [heavy defeats, the other coming in a 6-3 reverse to Manchester City] this season.”

The Polish goalkeeper continued: “It was just an accident, it happened. Liverpool were terrific offensively, we were a little bit weak defensively and got punished.

“I certainly believe it is out of our system now because we turned up against United with a good defensive show.”

Szczesny added that Arsenal can take confidence from preventing the likes of Juan Mata, Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie finding the net at The Emirates.

“You can’t say you saw the real Arsenal at Anfield, you have to judge us over a longer period of time,” Szczesny added.

“People have seen the real Arsenal over the last year. We conceded five on Saturday, but our defensive record over the last year or so has been amazing.

“You saw that against United, we didn’t concede against a top side with fantastic strikers and we hope to do that against Liverpool.”