ARSENAL 1 (Jesus 14)
MIKEL Arteta was once again left questioning Arsenal’s ability to “punish” their opponents after Lens came from behind to end the Gunners unbeaten start to the season tonight (Tuesday).
The French side marked their first Champions League home game in 20 years in glorious fashion as they sealed a well-earned 2-1 victory in front of their fans.
The evening had started well enough for the visitors at Stade Bollaert-Delelis with Gabriel Jesus giving Arsenal a 14th-minute lead after adding the finishing touches to Bukayo Saka’s through ball.
But Lens capitalised on David Raya’s poor pass out from the back to equalise, Adrien Thomasson expertly curling his shot past the Arsenal goalkeeper.
The Gunners, who were far from their best, almost retook the lead midway through the second half, Brice Samba reacting well to save Takehiro Tomiyasu’s effort from Martin Odegaard’s corner. The stop proved crucial as Lens got their winner two minutes later when Sepe Wahi swept home what proved to be the winner.
The result sealed another frustrating night for Arsenal and Arteta, who had seen Leandro Trossard, Kai Havertz, Reiss Nelson and Emile Smith Rowe all squander good opportunities.
Reflecting on a night of mistakes and missed chances, the Gunners boss said: “Errors happen in football constantly, every three or four seconds there is an error, even from the opponent, and we have to adapt to that.“I think today that the situation where we had most control, especially after the first goal and there we started to dominate. We had two big chances to score before them, and then the game turned around in that situation when they played around us, and we defended in the box really poorly.
“That’s what happens – big teams punish you and we didn’t punish them in the way that we punished PSV, and that was the difference in the game.”
There was more bad news for Arteta and Arsenal fans with Saka once again limping out of the action – this time lasting a little more than 30 minutes.
Admitting that the winger is now a doubt for Sunday’s crucial Premier League game against Manchester City, Arteta said: “He tried to backheel the ball in the first-half and felt something, it was something muscular and he was uncomfortable to carry on so we had to take him off.
“We don’t know anything more than that, obviously it was big enough not to allow him to continue to play the game and that’s obviously a worry for us.”
RC Lens: Samba, Gradit, Danso, Medina, Frankowski, Mendy (Diouf, 73), Abdul Samed, Machado (Aguilar, 81), Sotoca, Wahi (Said, 73), Thomasson (Fulgini, 73)
Substitutes not used: Leca, Pandor, Maouassa, El Aynaoui, Khusanov, Guilavogui
Arsenal: Raya, Tomiyasu, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko (White, 71), Rice, Odegaard (Nketiah, 80), Havertz (Smith Rowe, 70), Saka (Vieira, 34), Jesus, Trossard (Nelson, 70)
Substitutes not used: Ramsdale, Hein, Partey, Kiwior, Cedric Soares, Jorginho, Elneny
0 Comments