Łukasz Fabiański accepted he and his West Ham United teammates were beaten by the better side in their 5-2 home defeat to his former team Arsenal in the Premier League.
After a relatively slow start to proceedings at London Stadium, the Gunners edged in front through Gabriel’s header in the tenth minute, before Leandro Trossard doubled their advantage with a close-range finish shortly before the half-hour.
After another two goals in two minutes - via a Martin Ødegaard penalty and Kai Havertz’s composed finish - West Ham rallied and pulled two back through Aaron Wan-Bissaka and a glorious Emerson free-kick, but a Bukayo Saka spot-kick on the stroke of half-time proved the killer blow.
“For all of us, it’s a very disappointing afternoon,” said Fabiański, who featured for West Ham for the 207th time on Saturday, after having represented Arsenal on 78 occasions earlier in his career.
“It’s actually quite hard to describe the performance. We were up against a good side, who played well, but we definitely feel we could have done better so it is frustrating.
“We were all aiming to start strongly - our target was to be on the front foot, to press high and be in possession of the ball. But we made some sloppy mistakes, and Arsenal punished us.”
The Polish stopper was involved in Arsenal’s fifth goal in east London, and had few complaints after conceding the penalty that led to Saka’s goal, for his challenge on Gabriel in the air.
After being unable to follow up a strong performance away at Newcastle United, that yielded a 2-0 win, in their previous game, Fabiański and his fellow Hammers will now be looking to bounce back quickly away to Leicester City in the top flight on Tuesday night.
“He [Gabriel] outjumped me,” the 39-year-old said. “I tried to reach the ball, but he came from the blind side. I was always focused on the ball, but I think he came from a stronger position because I was jumping from standing.
“It’s a disappointing day, but there is another game in a few days and we will be focused on responding well in Leicester. Hopefully we can come back from there with a result.”
