Arsenal Slammed by Thierry Henry, Arsene Wenger and More After Monaco Loss

The postmortem of Arsenal's 3-1 home loss to Monaco in the Champions League last-16 first leg has been predictably brutal. Even players from manager Arsene Wenger's glorious past have lined up to savage one of the worst displays in the Frenchman's almost two-decade tenure.

Long-time centre-back Martin Keown chided the lack of professionalism and muscle in Arsenal's performance, per BBC Sport chief football writer Phil McNulty:

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The team is not professional enough. They get too caught up in the moment and they cannot afford to react to games like that. They need to be professional and step away from the emotion of it all. On the break Arsenal were continually picked off. They need a Patrick Vieira or an Emmanuel Petit.

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Keown's words reflected how Arsenal's flyweight midfield was swatted away by dynamic powerhouse Geoffrey Kondogbia. The 22-year-old former Sevilla ace is exactly the kind of skilled and robust athlete who used to patrol Arsenal's midfield during Wenger's glory years.

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Those years seem several lifetimes ago after watching the Gunners' latest capitulation on the big stage. It was a collapse created by what Wenger dubbed "suicidal" defending, per Daily Mail reporter Neil Ashton:

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We missed the chances and we were a bit suicidal defensively. We were not at the level we want to be.

The second and the third goals are suicidal. We came back to 2-1 and we have no right to let them score a third. It makes our task difficult in the second leg. We lost our nerves and rationality on the pitch, and the heart took over the head.

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The problem is Arsenal's most recent moments of self-destruction at the back weren't isolated incidents. Instead, they were merely the latest in a series of big-game calamities that have blighted the north London club consistently since 2006.

That's why Sky Sports pundit Graeme Souness feels the lion's share of the blame belongs with Wenger. The ex-Liverpool midfield talisman criticised a squad he dubbed "disorganised" and "miserable," per Daily Mirror reporter Aaron Flanagan.

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Wenger himself offered a brutal assessment of the unbalanced squad he's assembled, per the club's official site:

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It wasn't right because we always had to attack and when we lost the ball we were exposed. Physically we dropped in the second half in midfield and we were more exposed. At the back it wasn't one of our best nights.

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While Wenger's assessment is spot on, it's tough to accept from a manager who chose to field a slight and attack-minded midfield trio against Monaco's natural brawn. Arsenal didn't play a savvy game and the manager will naturally bear the brunt for the reckless approach, specifically the lack of patience.

He continually bemoaned his team's lack of guile, criticising a "weakness" mentally, per the club's Twitter feed:

Meanwhile, Souness' fellow Sky Sports pundit Thierry Henry wasn't quite as blunt. But Arsenal's record goalscorer and one of Wenger's greatest projects lamented how poor the Gunners were going forward, per Flanagan: "The players got frustrated. The passing wasn't very good. There was no real pace on the pass, no kind of sense or urgency to win the game."

The depressing post-match critique has been entirely warranted after Arsenal predictably played into an inevitable sucker punch from a team all wrong for Wenger's men. Monaco, led by pragmatic boss Leonardo Jardim, played a cagey game, keeping things narrow and compact.

For some reason, the Gunners persisted in trying to pass through the middle via short and intricate exchanges rather than stretching the Ligue 1 club with pace. It didn't help that when Wenger's men did carve chances, wasteful striker Olivier Giroud made a hash of them.

Wenger had little sympathy for Giroud's problems in front of goal. He also felt the whole team failed to play a smart game, per Daniel Taylor of the Guardian:

But the defeat owed as much to failing to perform as it did to any tactical failings. Stars such as Giroud and midfield playmakers Santi Cazorla and Mesut Ozil failed to deliver. A senior defender such as Per Mertesacker chose the biggest night of Arsenal's season to produce a career-worst performance.

It said a lot that Wenger, usually a staunch supporter of his players, even to a fault, was openly critical of his team, per ESPN reporter Miguel Delaney:

The whole night will stand as a time capsule containing every fragility Arsenal have embodied for the past nine years. It's a defeat that will cast a large shadow over a season that probably can't end soon enough for one of Wenger's most disappointing squads.