Michael Owen calls out a ‘sluggish’ Arsenal star for his role in shock defeat by Lens and suggests he can’t last 90 minutes… as ex-Gunners hero Martin Keown insists he ‘got done’

• Arsenal were beaten 2-1 by French outfit in the Champions League on Tuesday 
• Pundits Michael Owen and Martin Keown were critical of Oleksandr Zinchenko
• Listen to the latest episode of Mail Sport’s podcast ‘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.

Oleksandr Zinchenko has been dubbed ‘a halfway house’ after his difficult night for Arsenal in their 2-1 loss to Lens

Michael Owen called him ‘sluggish’ for his role in Lens’ winning goal, while former Gunners star Martin Keown said the defender ‘got done’ for the second goal

‘He has to either get close and affect the ball – either tackle or bring the player down or something – or he stays where he is.

‘But he can’t give himself away so easily. Sluggish. As soon as he was played around: sluggish.

‘We were talking before, he often gets brought off in games. Can he last games fitness-wise and stuff like that? He looked tired there when Lens played the one-two pass.’

Keown agreed with Owen and said Zinchenko committed himself too much, admitting he would have been disappointed if a similar goal had been scored against him during his playing days. 

Zinchenko found himself pulled out of position to allow Elye Wahi to net the winner

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‘I think Zinchenko just gets done, doesn’t he,’ Keown said.

‘He goes in too much. For me, I’d have just waited for [the Lens player] to come on, I wouldn’t have thrown myself in there. Little one-two behind him, attacks the space.

‘And then the marking in the box. You’ve got to mark in the box!

‘I know that they’re in a line there trying to deal with the ball that’s coming across, but you can’t pick out a player with that.

‘It’s a wonderful finish, he comes onto it beautifully, but I’d have been really disappointed if he scored that goal against me. You have to, as the second central defender there, be looking to pick up inside the box.’

A difficult game for Arsenal was compounded by an injury to winger Bukayo Saka – just before the Gunners play Man City in a crucial title clash.

Arsenal’s difficult evening was compounded 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’.

Asked later if he regretted picking Saka following his issues against both Tottenham and Bournemouth, Arteta replied: ‘No. It was a knock that he had the other day and he was perfectly fine. It was a backheel, an action that can produce that kind of injury.

‘Let’s see what the extent of it is and afterwards it’s too late. The last few were more knocks than anything else. He hasn’t really missed games. We gave him a break against Brentford (in the Carabao Cup) last week and that was all.

‘He tried to backheel a ball in the first half and felt something muscular. He felt uncomfortable to carry on so we had to take him off. We don’t know anything more. It was big enough not to allow him to continue to play the game and that’s a worry for us.

The Gunners suffered their first defeat of the season in Wednesday’s Champions League tie

‘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.’

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