Wojciech Szczesny dropped 'after being caught smoking three times'

The 25-year-old was dropped at the weekend for the match against Atalanta, which Roma lost 2-0.

And Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport reports that the reason for him being axed was that he was spotted smoking after Roma lost 6-1 to Barcelona in the Champions League.

As the Daily Mirror adds, the Polish star was caught smoking in the showers on New Year's Day and then again in June, making this a third time in 2015.

After the initial incident in January, the keeper apologised - and at the time, Arsene Wenger was sympathetic to his player.

"He is a serious boy who works very hard, he doesn't need all that [criticism]," said Wenger.

"He made a mistake, he is not the first one or the last one. You can do what you want at home. You have a freedom.

"My issue is that the players here are judged on their performances. Ideally, the best way to have as high a level as possible is to behave as close to the rules."

Wenger's words say it all. In the modern game, if the performances are good then bad behaviour will always be tolerated - a credo without which Luis Suarez would have been thrown out of the sport some years ago.

And with Szczesny the real issue is that the performances were just as questionable as the behaviour. And frankly, Gazzetta's report is somewhat laughable: a goalkeeper is dropped after letting in six goals, and it's supposedly about him lighting up a cigarette? As opposed to, you know, having just let in six goals?