Owen Hargreaves hammers Bernd Leno for latest Arsenal performance

By Lee Clarke

Owen Hargreaves has told Premier League Productions that he doesn’t believe Bernd Leno covered himself in glory on Saturday as Arsenal drew 1-1 with Burnley.

The former Premier League midfielder has blamed the German goalkeeper for his part in Chris Wood’s equalising goal for the Clarets.

Arsenal are still in a fight to return to European competition next season and only claiming a point at the weekend represents a setback.

(Photo; Neil Hall; Pool; Getty Images)

Leno has been in pretty good form his season but Hargreaves feels he has to take a portion of the blame for Saturday.

He told Premier League Productions: “Xhaka runs to him so urgently, I think Leno thinks, ‘Oh that’s a good ball, I will put it into him’.

“First of all, you never receive the ball in there. You see the centre-backs split them Xhaka runs into that spot.

“It’s a terrible ball from Leno but Xhaka shouldn’t be in there, and because it goes onto his right foot, he’s not confident enough to play it to the other side to David Luiz.

“It’s a terrible mistake but Mikel (Arteta) wants them to play out.”

TBR View: Arteta will hope errors are just a blip

Whether it was Leno or Xhaka who takes the blame is open to discussion but ultimately Arsenal have to forget this quickly.

Tottenham, West Ham and Liverpool are next up in the league and those three games will have a big say in how the Gunners finish the campaign.

The £100,000-a-week stopper has been a trusty member of Arteta’s team this season and he’ll remain the number one goalkeeper.

(Photo; David Price; Arsenal FC; Getty Images)

His ball to Xhaka wasn’t the best but ultimately the midfielder should still have been capable of recycling the ball.

The 29-year-old has kept eight clean sheets this season and at this stage of the season that perhaps isn’t enough.

He has proved a decent signing for the Gunners though and Arteta will hope that he can return to form in the next couple of weeks.