Arsenal succumbed to a disappointing 2-1 defeat away at RC Lens in their Champions League group stage game after Elye Wahi’s second half strike sealed the Gunners’ first loss of the season.
Adrien Thomasson’s sumptuous first-half volley for Lens cancelled out Gabriel Jesus’ well-taken opener in the first half, before Wahi’s winner eventually secured a memorable victory for the home side.
A frustrating evening in northern France was compounded further as Bukayo Saka hobbled off injured in the 33rd minute, as the winger faces a fight for fitness before Sunday’s clash at home to Manchester City.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta selected a strong starting eleven for this encounter, making only two changes from Saturday’s 4-0 win against Bournemouth, and will have warned his players against any complacency.
Yet, once they stepped onto the Stade Bollaert-Delelis turf, greeted by an almighty cacophony of noise, billows of smoke consuming the night air, and a throng of yellow, black and red flags, the Gunners will have known they were in for a tough evening.
However, after withstanding early attacking pressure, Arsenal broke the deadlock in the 14th minute, when Bukayo Saka pounced on a loose pass, before feeding striker Gabriel Jesus who planted his effort low into the bottom left corner.
Kai Havertz, fresh from scoring his first goal for the club on the weekend, nearly doubled the Gunners’ lead, running onto Zinchenko’s lovely lofted ball and hitting a bouncing volley that was palmed away by keeper Brice Samba.
This save proved vital when the home side grabbed their equaliser a few minutes afterwards, after Arsenal keeper David Raya’s long pass was intercepted, and the ball was eventually worked to Lens forward Andrien Thomasson, whose beautiful first time half-volley curled past Raya to send the home crowd into raptures.
The hearts of the travelling fans may have sunk even lower when seeing Bukayo Saka slump to the floor, and hobble off the pitch, as the game’s momentum firmly swung in Lens’ direction.
Arsenal responded well after the break, as Leandro Trossard fired at the legs of Samba, which again denied Takehiro Tomiyasu moments later as the Japanese defender’s close-range shot came after evading his marker from a corner.
Lens posed a considerable threat on the right-hand side of their attack, and the home side claimed the deciding goal after right wing-back Przemyslaw Frankowski’s cross was neatly converted by Elye Wahi’s half-volley past Raya’s despairing dive in the 69th minute.
Mikel Arteta’s attempts to rescue at least a point from this perilous situation included an immediate triple substitution, but his managerial counterpart Franck Haise was able to manage a late onslaught to secure a famous triumph for “Les Sang et Or”, in their first Champions League home match in 21 years.
Arsenal need to bounce back this weekend, but have they got enough fit players to cope with a top team like Man City?
Joel Mians
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This injury was unavoidable, nobody could’ve seen it coming.
😂😂😂😂😂😂
Hehe! I see what you did there.
The setup, the loss and the injury…long time coming. The less said, the better.
And you think overhauling the starting line up is the way to go against Lens? thank God you’re not the manager.
IT WAS BOUND TO HAPPEN BUT THE YOUNG LAD NEEDS A REST AND A COUPLE OF WEEKS OFF WILL DO HIM GOOD BUT NOT US,
AGAINST CITY I WOULD PLAY THIS TEAM.
RAYA
WHITE SALIBA GAB ZINC
ODE. RICE. ESR
JESUS. HAVARETZ TROS
I’d replace ESR with Rice while Partey anchors the midfield. City are the only side i deem deserved of such combo but with Rodri and KDB out your line up is not a bad idea especially with Kai at CF.
Please explain your inclusion of Havertz so we can get some insight into how he adds to our starting lineup.
His lay off has not been announced yet. A similar scenario happened at Bournemouth which happened to be a minor discomfort and not injury as everyone had thought, you never know same could be the case this time around as he did’nt get to play deep into second half.
Saka is a human man, not a machine. He is being treated as a machine not as a man.
Everyone but Arteta knew that Saka needed some rest. Hopefully Nelson is given an opportunity and he delivers. The game against Lens was tough, we might have still lost even if we had a fully fit squad, I thought they were really physical something that Arteta hasn’t figured out how to deal with. He really need to buy tough players for this kind of matches, vieira, ode, Trossard and Kai we bound to lose this battle.
Arteta said about the last “injury” Saka had:
“No, it was a knock that he picked up the other day, and he was perfectly fine.”
If the physios said he’s fine and Saka himself said he’s fine, I don’t see any reason to drop him from a Champions League match. Knocks don’t result to injuries, speaking from experience. I give MA the stick whenever his actions need it but playing Saka yesterday isn’t one of them. Yeah he could’ve dropped him but that would’ve been weird to go against physios and Saka’s opinion on the matter.
We just didn’t finish our chances and Lens buried theirs. That’s the essence of it really.
I strongly believe that Saka is deliberately targeted because of his quality. Why is he always the one who gets kicked? Many teams now know him as a very dangerous player who can only be stopped through rough play! Arteta has to find a way of protecting him.
It is difficult to get a reasonable method of safeguarding our physically weak players against bullies. The only sensible approach is for them to spend more time in the gym and build their muscles.
I think Saka will be ok. He is not injury prone and will shake it off.