It was a recreation that Mikel Arteta’s facet ought to actually have been profitable, and former Arsenal stalwart, Martin Keown, didn’t look like pleased with points of the Gunners Champions League defeat towards Lens.
If the outcome wasn’t unhealthy sufficient, then the lack of Bukayo Saka to damage solely added to his supervisor’s woes forward of a Premier League epic subsequent day trip as Arsenal host table-topping Man Metropolis.
It isn’t clear precisely what the issue was or how lengthy the England worldwide will probably be out for, however on first impressions it didn’t look good.
Keown didn’t mince his phrases when speaking in regards to the match afterwards.
“Not a catastrophe but it surely couldn’t have gone a lot worse,” he mentioned on TNT Sports activities, cited by the TNT Sports activities web site.
“Disappointing efficiency, disappointing outcome, Saka getting injured. I feel PSV-Sevilla solely drawing the sport is a plus level for them.
“[…] Didn’t get the ball sufficient into the vast positions they wanted. All credit score to Lens for profitable the match.
“Troublesome setting to go to for this younger Arsenal staff, however however you anticipate them to return away from there with at the least a draw.”
As soon as Gabriel Jesus had given the north Londoners an early first-half lead, issues regarded arrange properly for Arsenal to ease by means of the gears in a match towards a staff that had already conceded 12 targets of their home season throughout 2023/24.
Nonetheless, the anticipated caving in from the hosts by no means arrived and, certainly, their resolve and dedication turned the tie on its head.
To start with, Adrien Thomasson equalised within the twenty second minute, earlier than Elye Wahi scored what proved to be the winner within the 69th minute.
The reverse implies that Arsenal have arguably acquired all of it to do of their subsequent couple of UCL video games in the event that they need to make it to the knockout phases.