Arsenal defender Oleksandr Zinchenko was labeled ‘slow’ by pundit Michael Owen after the club’s shock 2-1 defeat to Lens on Tuesday, while club legend Martin Keown claimed he was ‘ready’ for the French side’s winning goal.
The Gunners were defeated for the first time this season as the Ligue 1 side recorded a famous victory in what was their first Champions League appearance on home turf in more than two decades.
Mikel Arteta’s men took the lead through a superb finish from Gabriel Jesus before Adrien Thomasson leveled the scores. Elye Wahi then put Lens ahead with twenty minutes to go, with the Ukrainian guilty of being pulled out of position and allowing Przemyslaw Frankowski to fall behind.
Wahi then converted 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 half way, isn’t he,” he told TNT Sports.
Oleksandr Zinchenko has been dubbed ‘a halfway house’ after his difficult night for Arsenal in the 2-1 defeat to Lens
Michael Owen called him ‘slow’ for his role in Lens’ winning goal, while former Gunners star Martin Keown said the defender was ‘ready’ for the second goal
‘He either has to get close and influence the ball – tackle the player or bring him down or something – or he stays where he is.
‘But he can’t give himself up so easily. Slow. Once played: slow.
‘We’ve talked about it before, he is often taken off the field in matches. Can he keep up in terms of fitness and things like that? He looked tired when Lens played the one-two pass.”
Keown agreed with Owen and said Zinchenko over-committed, admitting he would have been disappointed if a similar goal had been scored against him during his playing days.
Zinchenko was pulled out of position allowing Elye Wahi to score the winner
Your browser does not support iframes.
“I think Zinchenko is just done, isn’t he,” Keown said.
‘He goes in too much. For me, I would have just waited for (the Lens player) to arrive, I wouldn’t have thrown myself into it. Small one-two behind him attacks the space.
‘And then the marking in the box. You have to check the box!
‘I know they’re lining up there and trying to deal with the ball coming across, but you can’t pick a player with that.
‘It’s a beautiful finish, he comes in beautifully, but I would have been really disappointed if he had scored that goal against me. As the second central defender you have to enter the penalty area there.’
A difficult game for Arsenal was made worse by an injury to winger Bukayo Saka – just before the Gunners play Man City in a crucial title game.
Arsenal’s difficult evening was made worse by an injury to star winger Bukayo Saka
Arteta defended his decision to play the England international but admitted the injury ‘doesn’t look good’.
When later asked if he regretted choosing Saka after his problems against both Tottenham and Bournemouth, Arteta replied: ‘No. It was a blow he took the other day and he was doing fine. It was a back heel, an action that can cause that kind of injury.
“Let’s see what the extent of it is, and then it will be too late. The last few were more blows than anything. He hasn’t actually missed any games. We gave him a break last week against Brentford (in the Carabao Cup) and that was it.
‘He tried to hit a ball back in the first half and felt something muscular. He felt uncomfortable going any further so we had to take him off. We don’t know anything anymore. It was so big that he couldn’t continue playing the game and that worries us.
The Gunners suffered their first defeat of the season in the Champions League match on Wednesday
‘He was really looking forward to playing, like any player. It was a big Champions League night. I painted a picture of the kind of scenario we would 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 my congratulations to Lens. They are a really good side. Really well coached. We knew it would be a very tough match.
‘We had four or five chances in the boxes that we did not take away and we did not defend the boxes well enough.
‘It’s true that there were moments in the second half where we struggled to be more threatening in the final third and find space.
‘They defended very well with those numbers. That’s something to take with us for the next match.’