Arsenal Star Lauds 'Intelligent' Signing as Gunners' Cure

Wojciech Szczesny has urged Arsenal to complete the loan-signing of Thierry Henry as soon as possible, with the club in desperate "need" of their record goal scorer as soon as possible.

The 34-year-old striker is yet to finalise the terms of his two-month loan deal from New York Red Bulls, and Szczesny admits the club could do with his experience in a hectic period of games.

Arsenal hope to have Henry's paperwork completed before next Monday's FA Cup Third Round against Leeds.

And Szczesny revealed he is savouring the prospect of playing with Henry, after being impressed by the former-Arsenal striker's commitment in training.

"He's quality," Szczesny told Arsenal Player. "He's still a great finisher and he's very clever, he's very intelligent.

"As well as that he's a great figure to have in the dressing room. He helps all the young players off the pitch as well as on the pitch.

"It's good to have him there and hopefully everything will be confirmed and done as soon as possible because we need him."

The Polish international also criticised his Arsenal team-mates for their lacklustre performance in losing 2-1 to Fulham on Monday.

Bobby Zamora scored in the final minute of injury time as The Cottagers came from behind to beat 10-man Arsenal.

"The fixtures come thick and fast and players get tired and these kinds of results can happen," he said. "We were hoping to take advantage of that but we failed to do so.

"I would imagine it was a very childish performance in the end from us. I thought for 85 minutes we defended really well with 11 men and they never looked like scoring.Then when we had the ten men they put a lot of pressure on us and they looked very dangerous.

"We played 48 hours before and we went down to ten men and so there were probably some tired legs. I think we should still have kept the concentration, kept the focus and we would have been fine.

"We are disappointed with the result but hopefully we can recover as soon as possible."