Wednesday, 17th September, 2014
Former Arsenal striker John Hartson believes the Gunners have just not been good enough against the big teams for the last few seasons.
Arsenal suffered a humbling 2-0 loss to Borussia Dortmund at the Westfalenstadion in a Champions League group encounter last night, being overwhelmed by the Germans.
Ciro Immobile opened the scoring just before half-time and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang added one more just after the break to provide BVB a two-goal cushion. Dortmund had 22 attempts on goal compared to only four attempts for Arsenal.
The former Arsenal striker feels that the north London side have obvious squad deficiencies which remained hidden due to last season’s FA Cup triumph.
Hartson believes that the Gunners have consistently failed to turn up for big games for the last few years and the Dortmund game was a vindication of that fact.
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"Arsenal papered over the cracks last season, winning the FA Cup and just sneaking into the top four”, Hartson told BBC Radio 5 live.
“Their performances against the big teams in the past few years have been unacceptable.”
Hartson was scathing about Arsenal defensive capabilities and said the Gunners were lucky that they didn’t concede more than two goals last night.
“They could have conceded five or six against Dortmund. Without overreacting, it was a really woeful defensive performance from Arsenal."
Arsenal’s next Champions League Group D fixture will be against Galatasaray on 1st October at the Emirates Stadium.
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