As Bukayo Saka hobbled off during Arsenal’s loss in Lens in the Champions League, the team had a rough night.
When their flight to France was delayed on Monday due to bad weather, Mikel Arteta and his players were stranded at Luton Airport for five hours.
As a result of Lens’ comeback victory over them by a score of 2-1 at a rocking Stade Bollaert-Delelis, their hopes of avoiding a bumpy ride in the knockout stages have now also been dashed.
When Gabriel Jesus scored his 22nd Champions League goal to break the tie, he believed he had given the Gunners a boost.
However, expectations of a simple evening were dashed when goalkeeper David Raya made a mistake that allowed Adrien Thomasson to tie the score before Saka left the field injured for the third time in nine days.
Then, with 20 minutes remaining, Elye Wahi scored the winning goal to seal Group B, setting up Arsenal’s challenging trip to current Europa League champion Sevilla later this month.
For Lens, this was their first home Champions League match in twenty-one years, and their supporters were not going to miss the chance to celebrate.
Kickoff was greeted by a massive tifo, flares, and a wall of sound.
Their team immediately attacked Arsenal, with Kevin Danso narrowly missing the target after collecting a corner.
Despite the hosts getting off to a fast start, Arsenal took the lead when Jesus finished well into the bottom corner after Saka had been awarded the ball by a shoddy backpass.
Despite Lens falling behind, the crowd’s clamor continued inside the stadium, and they were rewarded with an equalizer.
In an attempt to play the ball into the middle of the field, Raya stood outside his box.
However, the pass was intercepted by the Arsenal goalkeeper, and shortly after that, Thomasson beat him with a beautiful curling shot to tie the game.
Saka then hobbled off the field hurt after colliding with the ball for the third straight game.
With just five days until Manchester City’s visit, he was replaced by Fabio Vieira after recovering from late exits against Tottenham and Bournemouth.
As Arsenal attempted to regain the lead early in the second half, Leandro Trossard forced Brice Samba in goal for Lens into a deft save.
However, the Ligue 1 team began to take control of the game, and Abdul Samed’s shot into the side-netting just after the half served as a warning for the visitors.
Takehiro Tomiyasu had a great opportunity to turn home a corner as the game opened up, but he was only able to shoot straight at Mendy.
Lens would take the lead thanks to Wahi, who scored past Raya with a sweeping move following another break down the right flank.
In response, Arteta made a triple substitution right away, replacing Trossard and Kai Havertz with Emile Smith Rowe and Reiss Nelson in place of the ineffective Oleksandr Zinchenko.
Samba was largely unaffected by the changes for the remainder of the game, punching out a Smith Rowe drive when Arsenal was unable to clear a clear-cut opportunity to save.
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