Former Arsenal player Martin Keown has criticised Bukayo Saka and his Arsenal team-mates for lacking know how as Bayern Munich knocked them out of the Champions League.
The Gunners lost 1-0 to Bayern in the Allianz Arena and didn’t trouble Thomas Tuchel’s side as they crashed out of the quarter finals 3-2 on aggregate.
After failing to score in the defeat to Aston Villa, Mikel Arteta’s side could only muster eight shots on goal against the Germans, and were particularly disappointing in the second half.
Keown accuses Arsenal of lacking know how
Saka, who had a very quiet evening disappointed Keown, when in the 95th minute he took a quick free kick to Ben White instead of crossing into the box or shooting, before hitting the first man from the resulting corner.
Keown was less than impressed with the Gunners display and made his thoughts clear after the game.
“It was very disappointing, kind of summed up at the end there when Saka for some reason taking a free kick short when there was the opportunity to really test the goalkeeper”, Keown told TNT Sports.
“You just saw that little bit of lack of experience. There needs to be more urgency in the closing exchanges. Saka made that decision in the moment.
‘I admire that as well. But I think he might have been better taking that delivery from the free kick and it might have been a wonder goal.
“You wanted to see the ball going in the box. That urgency wasn’t there and I think that’s a lack of experience, of being in those major games, and knowing what to do in those critical moments.”
Arsenal did have chances with Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus, and Martin Odegaard all presented with opportunities which they failed to take.
The first half was cagey but Bayern exploded into life in the second with Leon Goretzka and Raphael Guerrero both striking the post in quick succession.
Kimmich headed home the only goal of the game after 63 minutes to send the Bayern fans into a frenzy and Thomas Tuchel’s side were able to hold on.
For Arsenal’s poor performance, the one to blame is Arteta not the players . Trust me Goooóoners, Arteta won’t win us trophies coz he is still a “work in progress manager”, a tactical Dwarf, a hater of some of the players in the team.and loving so much less impact players like Kai Havertz to the extent that he is a starter in every Arsenal game and never be substituted.
He has been given a lot of money for investment in players for the last three seasons but winning us nothing hiding in childish reasoning that his team is younger and they are still learning yet he has been throwing out experienced players from the club since he took charge who even helped him win the trophies he has on Arsenal record and even distancing away players like Maquinhos who would good substitutes to players like Bukayo Saka who has been over used (over loaded with games) at his age.
With the reasoning of his team being Young, I’ve not seen any team winning trophies with an average age of 30yrs or 40yrs. Teams win trophies between the average of 23-28yrs and Arteta’s squad falls with in tha blacket. So that is no excuse any more. Let the board try to shake him up.
Like I said before,we are only on this Amazing run of form bc we’re out of Carling cup and fa cup,you know arteta can never change,why do I say so,I saw this coming,tell me where on earth can you use only your first eleven to win titles, Those guys are not machine,in football there will be injuries and fatigue,you see those players are tired,I told my friend that I will like Bayern to win us,he said why must I say something like that,I told him look,arteta don’t know how to use his players when we started playing 3 days,he will use his first team to play Bayern and come to epl with the same players and will go Bayern for 2nd leg with the same team that played in the epl, what happened to all this guys on the bench,you have almost 11 players on the bench warming it and get payed for it,in football if you can’t manage your players and give them rest then nothing for you,arteta is the big problem arsenal have,I’m not saying he is not a good coach,but he is not experienced at all,he should do better,when you have two opportunities for a title,you got to choose one slightly and rest your players as long as you can for the other,he doesn’t know what he want, because if I am an arsenal coach I will choose premier league above this champion league,why because we’re more in a better position to win that than the champions league,then I will need to rest my players a bit,someone like Saka is tired,arteta is the one stressing this players,how can you have a bench that you don’t use,the reason of having a bench is to give your first team players a breather,but he chooses to use and drain them,when arsenal first team are fresh we know what they are capable of ,so the coach is to be blame,I’m happy he can now focus on one cup, because he doesn’t know how to go about it ,when it comes to reshuffling his team,I’m player and I know what it takes to play football.