Arsenal youngster Arthur Okonkwo made a huge error in goal as his side lost 2-1 to Hibernian in their pre-season opener.
Mikel Arteta’s team kicked off their pre-season on Tuesday with the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Willian, Eddie Nketiah and Ainsley Maitland-Niles in the starting line-up.
It ends in defeat in Edinburgh#HIBARS
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) July 13, 2021
As well as Okonkwo who had a moment to forget in the 21st minute.
The 19-year-old completely missed his kick as Martin Boyle pounced to open the scoring at Easter Road.
Arsenal Football is Back!!!!!!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/0MshLybAQK
— , (@notdubs1) July 13, 2021
Daniel Mackay then doubled Hibs’ lead in the 69th minute.
Pepe had the chance to reduce the deficit from the spot, but he fluffed his lines from 12-yards.
Pepe misses a penalty. #afc pic.twitter.com/C1iwm5flQq
— DailyAFC (@DailyAFC) July 13, 2021
Though the Gunners did get one back when Emile Smith Rowe volleyed home from inside the box in the 81st minute.
Arsenal pull a goal back, with Emile Smith Rowe volleying home from Héctor Bellerín’s inviting cross. [@TheAFCnewsroom] #afc pic.twitter.com/6HJaI3PMvq
— afcstuff (@afcstuff) July 13, 2021
However, it wasn’t enough to prevent defeat as Arteta blamed the result on just having four training sessions so far.
After the match, he said: “Well I’m always disappointed when we lose a football match but it is the first game, we played with many kids and we only had four training sessions. We’ve trained really hard and you could see that the players were a little bit leggy.
“I think we conceded the first goal, an accident, and the second goal was clearly offside. We created many, many chances but we didn’t score.
“That’s what pre-season is for, to take the things that we haven’t done well into a training session and then improve.”
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| Image: PA |
Asked if the lack of training so far explains his team’s performance, he replied: “It does but there’s no excuse because we want to come here and win the match.
“They worked really hard, the boys worked really hard and you could see that some of them were not in the best condition, but we’re still very early in pre-season.
“It was great to see some of the young lads making their debuts here. We’ll keep working.”
Arsenal resume their pre-season against Steven Gerrard’s Rangers on Saturday.