Wojciech Szczesny says he never wants to leave Arsenal.
The Poland international has spent nine years at the club since arriving from Legia Warsaw and won the FA Cup at the weekend, keeping a clean sheet in the 4-0 victory over Aston Villa.
Szczesny has not played in the Premier League since New Year's Day but he says the positive atmosphere in the squad helped him to remain focused while he was out of the team.
"People love to speculate and people love to gossip a bit. But I love this club and I don't want to ever leave it"
“Speaking honestly, it hasn't been quite as awful a time for me as it might have seemed from the outside,” Szczesny said. “I’ve got a really good relationship with the boys in the squad as well as with the boss.
“I fully accept the boss' decisions, whatever they may be. Of course, it's understandable that your pride feels hurt and your ambition dented. That's only natural and to be expected.
“But I got my chance today and I'm really grateful to the boss for that. I believe that I took my chance well, or as well as I could, since I kept a clean sheet, even if the way the game went I didn't honestly have too many situations to avoid letting the team down.
“I concentrated on demonstrating calmness and authority as the basis for our defensive set-up. I think it worked well from that perspective.
“Hopefully our defensive solidity was one of the reasons why they were unable to really test us too much during the match. To have come through such a challenge leaves you with a really special feeling of satisfaction, and so I'm very grateful to the manager for selecting me to play this time.
“People love to speculate and people love to gossip a bit. But I love this club and I don't want to ever leave it.”
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