Martin Keown urges Arsenal not to ‘panic’ after slipping to PSV defeat but Gunners legend admits fears over lack of squad depth – ‘That could be a problem’

Arsenal legend Martin Keown has told Gunners players and fans not to panic following their defeat to PSV Eindhoven in the Europa League.

Mikel Arteta's men suffered a 2-0 defeat away to the Dutch giants on Thursday night.

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Arsenal needed just a point from the game to win Group A and seal their progression straight through to the knockout stage, but now they will have to clinch a last-16 spot in their final match against Zurich.

Their defeat to PSV, thanks to goals from Joey Veerman and Luuk de Jong, was Arsenal's second loss of the season so far, after previously only being beaten by Manchester United in the Premier League.

Despite the set-back, Keown believes his former club has enough to turn things around and is not worried by their below-par performance, with Arteta admitting his side were 'extremely poor'.

"It was a difficult game, but I am not panicking that Arsenal lost", he told White and Jordan on talkSPORT.

"I could see it coming almost, Jim, really.

"I actually wondered, I don't think the manager could have done anything else. He wanted to try and keep that momentum going, so he rested five players, made a number of changes.

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"I do wonder whether he maybe could have rested more players and said, 'OK, we have the Zurich game, the last game that we need to win and now we can take a little bit of a break', and they need to win of course and take a break.

"But I can see that game in the future, they actually play Chelsea three days later so he wanted to get the job done - but PSV have some decent players."

While Keown isn't overreacting to the defeat, there have been questions asked over Arsenal squad depth after a changed team crumbled to such a loss.

And the Gunners legend admitted Arteta and his side are struggling with the work load.

"We've got to the stage of the season where there are lots of games in succession and there's a group of players not available for selection for Arteta, which makes things a little bit difficult," said the former centre-back.

"He's been resting five or six each game, they've been flip-flopping between different groups of players.

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"I would actually have liked to see Granit Xhaka have a rest against PSV, I thought he played well in the game, but he has to play him. There are certain players who are almost having to play every single game."

And Keown suggested Arsenal's players are managing their fitness on the pitch as they prepare for a long season in the Premier League and Europe - something the Highbury hero believes could be their undoing.

"If you're not going to be at boiling point, then you're not going to win anything," he added.

"I think that was the thing, one or two were maybe not giving everything because they're trying to manage their energy levels.

"And when you don't have your best XI out you can see Arsenal just fall away from it, and that maybe the problem this season.

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"I think it [the defeat] is no problem. It's a reset, it's fine... but is the squad strong enough?

"There's talk of buying players in January, Oleksandr Zinchenko has not be available for some time, Emile Smith Rowe is still injured, Mohamed Elneny is not available.

"Every club will have their injury problems, of course, but it's really showing on Arsenal right now."

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Mikel Arteta's side have the perfect opportunity to bounce back when they host struggling Nottingham Forest at the Emirates on Sunday.

They will then have the chance to wrap up their Europa League group when they welcome Zurich to north London next Thursday.