Pundits Michael Owen and Martin Keown were critical of Oleksandr Zinchenko
Click HERE to listen to the latest episode of Mail Sport's 'It's All Kicking Off'
Arsenal defender Oleksandr Zinchenko was labelled 'sluggish' by pundit Michael Owen after the club's shock 2-1 loss to Lens on Tuesday - while club legend Martin Keown claimed he 'got done' for the French side's winning goal.
The Gunners were beaten for the first time this season as the Ligue 1 outfit picked up a famous victory in what was their first Champions League appearance at home for more than 20 years.
Mikel Arteta's men went ahead through a great finish from Gabriel Jesus before Adrien Thomasson levelled the scores. Elye Wahi then put Lens in front with 20 minutes to go - with the Ukrainian guilty of being pulled out of position and allowing Przemyslaw Frankowski to run in behind.
Wahi then converted to convert what would prove to be the winning goal and former Liverpool and Man United star Owen was highly critical of Zinchenko's involvement, questioning why he 'gave himself away so easily'.
'Zinchenko is halfway house, isn't he,' he told TNT Sports.He was really looking forward to playing like every player. It was a big Champions League night. I painted a picture and the type of scenario we were going to face today and they all knew about it.
'But this Champions League is so difficult to win away from home. Today we take a big lesson.'
Discussing the disappointing defeat, Arteta was keen to avoid 'excuses', adding: 'First of all, congratulations to Lens. They are a really good side. Really well coached. We knew it was going to be a really tough match.
'In the boxes we had four or five chances we didn't put away and we didn't defend the boxes well enough.
'It's true there were moments in the second half we struggled to be more threatening in the final third and find spaces.
'They defended with those numbers really good. That's something to take for the next game.'
0 Comments