Former Tottenham striker Jermain Defoe insists that Eberechi Eze was “not good enough” as Arsenal were held to a 1-1 draw against Brentford on Thursday night.
The Gunners dropped valuable points against the Bees after Keane Lewis-Potter cancelled out Noni Madueke’s brilliant header as Keith Andrews’ side got a deserved share of the spoils.
After Manchester City beat Fulham 3-0 earlier in the week, the gap between leaders Arsenal and Pep Guardiola’s second-placed side is now down to just four points as the Premier League title race heats up.
Eze was among many summer signings for Arsenal with the Gunners hierarchy spending over £250m on new recruits as they looked to end three consecutive runners-up finishes by finally winning the title this term.
The England international has not started as many games as he would have liked and has contributed just four goals – three of which came in one match – and two assists in 20 Premier League appearances.
When asked if Arsenal had put in an uncharacteristic performance, Defoe told Premier League Productions: “I think so, yeah. I think it’s the pressure.
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“But saying that, it’s a difficult place to go, you know what you’re getting when you go to Brentford. It’s not going to be easy but you have to try to make it easy.
“You have to cut out individual mistakes, in terms of the concentration levels they have to be high. You have to limit them of chances, they [Arsenal] didn’t do that really, I thought Brentford were better in the second half, I thought Arsenal wasted the first half.
“Eze was not good enough. Although I still feel like he’s playing with the handbrake on. I know he hasn’t played games and probably is not match fit, but you still expect a little bit more.
“But they [Arsenal] were different tonight, and I think that’s a mentality thing.”
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Theo Walcott insists Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta “will not be happy” with his side after their draw at the Gtech Community Stadium.
Walcott said: “I felt like with Man City getting the points the day before, there’s always that pressure of, ‘we need to do the job’.
“It’s still in their hands. They have plenty of games to make up the points, of course. Everyone will look at that game when they play each other.
“He [Arteta] will not be happy, he will not be happy with that. He will be unhappy with a lot of players as well tonight because they were indifferent.”
