Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has slammed referee Lee Probert for his handling of the club’s 2-1 defeat at Fulham yesterday.

 

The Gunners went down to two late Cottagers goals, through Steve Sidwell (85th minute) and Bobby Zamora (92nd minute) to leave Craven Cottage empty handed.

 

What made matters worse for Wenger was seeing defender Johan Djourou sent off for two bookable offences and forward Gervinho denied what looked to be a clear penalty as his side then conceded late on – and this after the Gunners had taken the lead through Laurent Koscielny and dominated the first half.

 

Indeed, the result left Wenger fuming as his side had clearly played Fulham off the park for large periods. And his ire focused on the referee.

 

"The referee influenced the game in completely the wrong way, in my opinion", said Wenger.

 

"The first yellow card was not a yellow. The second was a foul for us."

 

The Arsenal boss also pointed to tiredness as a possible explanation for his side’s defeat.

 

"We had a good first half and in the second half we were tired in the last ten minutes. We lost the game because we were down to ten men.

 

"In the end I think it was very unlucky to lose a game with ten men. When you see that we finished the game with ten men it is very difficult to take and that makes a massive difference when you played 48 hours before. It is too difficult."

 

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