Jermain Defoe singled out Eberechi Eze for criticism after Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with Brentford on Thursday evening.
Arsenal’s lead over Manchester City at the highest of the Premier League is now 4 points after Noni Madueke’s second-half header was cancelled out by Keane Lewis-Potter to secure a draw for Brentford on the Gtech Community Stadium.
Eze, meanwhile, struggled to make an impact against Brentford and Arsenal’s £67.5 million summer signing was substituted at half-time for Martin Odegaard.
The England international has been unable to secure an everyday starting role under Mikel Arteta since arriving from Crystal Palace and Defoe believes the 27-year-old is ‘fiddling with the handbrake on’.
When asked if he felt that it was an uncharacteristic performance from Arsenal, Defoe told Premier League Productions: ‘I feel so, yeah. I feel it’s the pressure.
‘But saying that, it’s a difficult place to go, you realize what you’re getting if you go to Brentford. It’s not going to be easy but you’ve to attempt to make it easy.
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‘You have got to chop out individual mistakes, when it comes to the concentration levels they need to be high. You have got to limit them of probabilities, they [Arsenal] didn’t do that basically, I believed Brentford were higher within the second half, I believed Arsenal wasted the primary half.
‘Eze was not adequate. Although I still feel like he’s fiddling with the handbrake on. I do know he hasn’t played games and doubtless just isn’t match fit, but you continue to expect somewhat bit more.
‘But they [Arsenal] were different tonight, and I feel that’s a mentality thing.’
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Meanwhile, former Arsenal forward Theo Walcott believes Arteta will likely be ‘unhappy’ with several players in his squad for his or her display against Brentford.
‘I felt like with Man City getting the points the day before, there’s at all times that pressure of, ‘we want to do the job’,’ Walcott said.
‘It’s still of their hands. They’ve loads of games to make up the points, in fact. Everyone will have a look at that game after they play one another.
‘He [Arteta] is not going to be joyful, he is not going to be joyful with that. He will likely be unhappy with plenty of players as well tonight because they were indifferent.’
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