Thierry Henry explains why he was ‘not surprised’ by Arsenal loss

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Iconic former Arsenal forward Thierry Henry has stated that he was unsurprised to see the Gunners lose to Lens.

Arsenal recorded their first defeat of the season so far against French side Lens on Tuesday evening. The 2-1 defeat in the Champions League match was compounded by the further blow of seeing Bukayo Saka leave the pitch with an injury in the first half.

Mikel Arteta will be desperately hoping that the 22-year-old winger can somehow recover in time to feature against Manchester City at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday. 

Even with the early loss of Saka, Arteta will still feel that Arsenal ought to have been able to grind out a positive result against Lens. They were able to create goalscoring opportunities, but too many chances were wasted, and individual errors at the back cost them.

As far as Thierry Henry is concerned, his former club were always set to face a tough test in France. Speaking on CBS Sports, he said, “away from home in Europe, nothing is easy…They [Lens] 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.”

Arsenal face another tough test

There are no easy games at Champions League level, and the extended travel and hectic fixture schedule add a further layer of difficulty. 

Arteta won’t have underestimated Lens coming into this fixture, nor will he have let his players become complacent in the build up. However, the team was still a long way from its best on Tuesday.

Hopefully, this poor result will fire up the squad. There are lessons to be learned from this performance. Those lessons must be applied against Manchester City on Sunday if the north London club are to stand any chance of securing a positive result at the Emirates Stadium.

How the Gunners bounce back from this disappointment and perform against the reigning Premier League champions this season will reveal a lot about their character as a team, and whether they have what it takes to compete for major honours this season.