Football

Martin Keown slams Alexandre Lacazette and Nicolas Pepe after Arsenal’s defeat to Olympiacos


Martin Keown called Alexandre Lacazette a ‘passenger’ after Arsenal’s defeat to Olympiacos (Reuters)

Martin Keown has slammed Alexandre Lacazette and Nicolas Pepe following Arsenal’s Europa League exit to Olympiacos on Thursday evening.

Youssef El Arabi’s goal in the 119th minute of extra time took the Greek side through on away goals, securing their passage to the last 16.

With just seconds left of the game, Gunners captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang missed a guilt-edged chance to win the tie, and looked on the verge of tears after the final whistle.

But during the 90 minutes, Lacazette and Pepe struggled to make an impact and were unable to find the target for Arsenal.

Keown subsequently described Lacazette as a ‘passenger’ in the game and called Pepe’s decision making ‘poor’.

After the game, ex-Arsenal defender Keown told BT Sport: ‘This is a game that was there for the taking.

Arsenal’s players were stunned by Olympiacos’ late winner (Picture: Getty Images)

‘They were complacent in their performance, is it the attitude? Is it the quality of the players?

‘It was so disappointing. It was the first time tonight I felt that the players weren’t responding to the manager and the manager didn’t have the answers.

‘It was very static, Lacazette was almost a passenger, [Gabriel] Martinelli came on and did exceptionally well. Why wasn’t he on earlier in the match? They left it too late.

‘I just feel it was an unprofessional performance, and Arteta will be looking at it now thinking ‘where do I go from here’?

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang missed an excellent chance to put Arsenal through (Getty Images)

‘It’s going to be an uphill battle to make it into the Champions League just in the Premier League.

‘There’s going to be quite a fall out from this because Arteta is a young manager, he’s inexperienced with a new set of staff and he’s going to have to build this club back up again.

‘If you break down the performance you could look at every single player and say they could have done more tonight.

‘Pepe at times his decision making [was poor], that element of his game is going to have to improve massively and I felt that it was almost obvious Martinelli had to come on.

‘I was sat close to Arteta, I was tempted to go over and say put Martinelli on.’

Arsenal’s league position of ninth makes the prospect of Champions League football via domestic competition difficult.

After 27 games the Gunners have accrued just 37 points, seven behind fourth-placed side Chelsea with just 11 matches to play.

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