Eberechi Eze looks set to continue in the starting lineup for Arsenal despite being “not good enough” against Brentford as his teammate was spotted ‘limping onto the bus’ after the draw at the Gtech.

Eze was hooked by Mikel Arteta at half-time as Arsenal escaped with a point on Thursday having been bullied by Keith Andrews’ side.

Noni Madueke gave the Gunners the lead on the hour mark before Keane Lewis-Potter equalised, but the Gunners were hanging on at the end of the game as they struggled to deal with the Bees’ set pieces.

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Peter Crouch described Eze as a “passenger”before he was taken off and former Tottenham striker Jermain Defoe agrees the ￡60m summer signing was “not good enough”.

When asked if he felt that it was an uncharacteristic performance from Arsenal, Defoe told Premier League Productions: “I think so, yeah. I think it’s the pressure.

“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.”

Eze may have to continue in midfield for Arsenal though as Arteta, already without Mikel Merino and Kai Havertz, may also not have captain Martin Odegaard to call upon after the Gunners skipper returned from two games out to make a real difference in the second half but was spotted ‘limping onto the bus’, according to Mirror.

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Odegaard looked in real discomfort after he challenged Lewis-Potter as the Brentford star scored and managed to continue after some treatment on the touchline, but was suffering the after-effects as he left the stadium.

Arsenal take on Wigan in the FA Cup on Sunday and Arteta will want to see a significant improvement in performance from his side, according to ex-Gunners forward Theo Walcott.

“I felt like with Man City getting the points the day before, there’s always that pressure of, ‘we need to do the job’,” Walcott said.

“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.”