Henry admits he's 'not surprised' by Arsenal defeat as Arteta worry raised

04 October 2023 , 09:35

841     0

Arsenal legend Thierry Henry (Image: Twitter/@CBSSportsGolazo)

Arsenal legend Thierry Henry was "not surprised" to see his former club lose 2-1 to Lens in the Champions League, despite the French side being just one point above the relegation zone in Ligue 1.

Gabriel Jesus gave the Gunners an early lead before Adrien Thomasson netted a stunning equaliser just ten minutes later. Elye Wahi then scored the winner for Lens in the second-half, condemning Arsenal to their first defeat of the season.

"Lens is a tough place," Henry said on CBS Sports. "They created a lot for their wing-backs, they put pressure on with their wing-backs, they don't allow you to play inside and when the atmosphere is rocking it's a tough place to go and win.

"That's exactly what happened to Arsenal tonight. Away from home in Europe nothing is easy. These guys that you see on the screen had a hell of a finish on second goal.

"They fight for every single ball that team. They don't often lose at home and they showed that tonight. They didn't start well this season, but Lens is a very capable team at home... I'm not surprised with the result."

Mikel Arteta's dream Arsenal line up as last-gasp January transfers are secured

Henry also shared his concerns at seeing Bukayo Saka limp off injured in the first-half, with manager Mikel Arteta admitting after the game it "doesn't look good". And with a huge game against title rivals Manchester City on Sunday, Henry seemed to question the decision to start Saka against Lens in the first place given the forward has featured in every Arsenal match bar four in the Carabao Cup since the start of the 2021-22 season.

"You can obviously be surprised away from home in the Champions League, it happened to me, it happened to everybody," Henry added. "It's tough to win away from home in Europe.

"You lose, it can happen, but it also looks like you might have lost Bukayo Saka. Suddenly you don't have the main man at Arsenal playing against Man City at the weekend... it's going to be the job of an Eddie Nketiah, a Trossard, a Kai Havertz (to step up).

"It wasn't so much a criticism (of Mikel Arteta), but the only thing you can say about Bukayo is that he's been playing everything and at one point you're going to hit a wall and it's going to be a bit too much. It was maybe physically a bit too much tonight...

"Obviously he's going to be missed, how long it's going to be I don't know but, we need to find a way to beat City because we haven't done that for a very long time in the league."

Matthew Cooper