Gunners star says Cup ties are ‘my games’.
Arsenal goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski has described the FA Cup as ‘my competition’ and says he is looking forward to the quarter final clash with Everton.
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The Pole has started in every round of the tournament so far, and impressed in yesterday’s fifth round victory over Liverpool, making a number of key saves.
After seven years in North London, Fabianski will leave Arsenal this summer in search of regular first team football but says he is relishing the chance to continue to be involved in the cup games.
“It’s not really difficult for me to come in and play after weeks on the bench because I’m already quite experienced when it comes to that.
“I’m looking forward to every game I can possibly play in but I know that the FA Cup is my competition.
“I prepare for each game in the same way but I know 100 per cent in my mind that the FA Cup games are my games.
“The manager hasn’t said that to me. It’s just my private opinion of the situation.”
Arsenal earned revenge on the Reds for the 5-1 defeat Liverpool inflicted on them in the league and Fabianski admitted the match at Anfield was still the players’ minds.
“We managed to win a really difficult game against an opponent who killed us last week.
“Obviously that result was still in our heads and it could have been a similar story because we started the game a bit slow again and they had two really good chances in the first few minutes.
“But I managed to help the team in those situations and we are all really happy with the response we gave.
“You can see the defence is more solid this season. Overall we are much more confident and organised.
“The communication is much better and the whole team is focused on defending, with players tracking back and the strikers putting pressure on our opponents.
“We have another difficult FA Cup draw against Everton but first we have to focus on Bayern Munich on Wednesday because that’s another massive game for us.”
Fabianski was helpless to keep out Steven Gerrard’s second half penalty and revealed he tried to second guess where the England captain would put the ball.
“I was trying to be smart. I’d watched Gerrard’s penalties this season and he’d been two to the right then one to the left.
“The last penalty he took was against Fulham last week and I thought that he’d think I’d look at that and so would change his mind.
“But it didn’t happen so I think I failed on that one. But the most important thing was to win the game and we are all happy that we achieved that.”
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