Arsenal shoot themselves in the foot again to leave season hanging by a thread

Match statistics: Arsenal 1-1 Slavia Prague

A place in the semi-finals was there for the taking, but Arsenal fluffed their lines - again.

This may not have been anywhere near as bad as the embarrassing 3-0 defeat against Liverpool on Saturday, but failure to put Slavia Prague away in the first leg of this Europa League quarter-final could be far more costly.

This was a game the Gunners should have won comfortably, but some woeful finishing and awful defending means they will travel to the Czech Republic next week with the tie level at 1-1.

Arsenal’s season now rests on success in this competition, and they had more than enough opportunities to ensure they could enjoy a relatively comfortable evening in Prague next Thursday night.

But time and time again they failed to take advantage, with Bukayo Saka, Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang all guilty of missing gilt-edge chances.

And when substitute Nicolas Pepe did finally put them in front with just three minutes remaining, they still managed to find a way of letting Slavia back into the game.

First they failed to clear their lines when they had the opportunity and after playing themselves into trouble, Pepe could only deflect the resulting corner onto the head of Tomas Holes, who bundled home a crucial away goal for the visitors.

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What had looked to be a good result for Arsenal, turned into a miserable one in the space of a few error-strewn seconds.

They now know they will definitely have to score in Prague next Thursday if they are to make the semi-finals, and they will have to do it under increased scrutiny following another display which raised more questions than answers.

Arteta had called on his players to respond in the right way after the barrage of criticism they faced following Saturday’s abject performance against Liverpool in the Premier League.

And while they were much improved and comfortably the better side on the night, they one again managed to find a way of shooting themselves in the foot in spectacular style.

For Arteta, it was another performance which will see fingers pointed in his direction - especially over team selection and how long he waited to make changes in the second half.

He opted for Lacazette over Aubameyang, with the Gunners captain left on the bench after his two underwhelming displays against West Ham and Liverpool.

And while the Gabon international can have few complaints about being left out, it was still a massive call on what was the biggest night of the season for Arsenal.

What the skipper was thinking when he watched Lacazette race clean through in the second half only to hit the bar, only he will know. But it was certainly a chance he would have loved to have been on the end of.

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Having said that, he did waste a glorious opportunity himself seconds after coming on when he failed to connect properly with Emile Smith Rowe’s cross from point blank range.

Aubameyang did make amends, however, when he linked up with fellow substitute Pepe in the closing stages, with the Ivory Coast winger producing a wonderful finish under pressure to finally break the deadlock.

At that point it looked like Arsenal had rescued themselves and put themselves into a good position ahead of the second leg, but when Cedric Soares and Gabriel played themselves into trouble as the clock ticked into injury time, disaster struck.

The resulting corner was swung in and when the ball deflected off Pepe, it fell perfectly for Holes at the back post who powered a header past Leno to make it 1-1.

Arteta was furious on the touchline, as was Granit Xhaka, who berated his team-mates for not just clearing the ball in the build-up to the equaliser.

This was a game that was there for the taking for Arsenal, yet somehow they managed to throw it away.

The draw now leaves Arsenal’s already disappointing season on a knife-edge. They still have it all to play for in Prague next week, but if things go wrong they will only have themselves to blame.