Roy Keane insists he knew Arsenal were in trouble during the Gunners’ Bayern Munich embarrassment when he saw Kieran Gibbs was captain.
Gibbs was handed the armband after Laurent Koscielny limped off after 49 minutes to leave the Gunners rudderless.
The move kick-started the Gunners’ collapse as Bayern ran riot with three goals in 10 minutes to give the Germans a 5-1 first leg advantage.
Former Manchester United skipper Keane, speaking on ITV’s Champions League Highlights show, said: “When I see Gibbs with the captain’s armband on at the end of the game, you’re in trouble.”
Keane also claimed Arsene Wenger has only “got two decent players” after the defeat – which is likely to kick the Gunners out of the Champions League at the last 16 for the seventh successive season.
“I’m not surprised,” Keane said. “Did you think they’d go to Bayern Munich and get a result?
“We’ve said it before, though. Lack of leaders, lack of characters, hunger, desire.
“But I have to say, tonight at this level, this stage of the competition, they’re just not good enough.
“So there’s no point in being too critical of them, because they’re not good enough.
“They’ve only got two decent players. The rest, average.”
After going one-nil down, thanks to a superb strike from Arjen Robben, Arsenal appeared to get themselves back into the game through Alexis Sanchez.
The Chilean scored from a rebound after initially missing from the penalty spot.
But if the Gunners were motivated by heading into half-time at 1-1, it didn’t show in the second 45 minutes.
Robert Lewandowski scored eight minutes after the restart, and Thiago made it 3-1 six minutes after that.
The capitulation continued when the Spaniard doubled his tally seven minutes later and almost certainly ended the tie.
Substitute Thomas Muller then added insult to injury in the 88th minute by making it five.
