Arsenal Cologne: Martin Keown blames under-policing for delay to Europa League clash

ARSENAL and Cologne's Europa League clash was clearly under-policed, according to Martin Keown.

Martin KeownGETTY

Martin Keown was not impressed by the policing at the game

Arsenal kick off their Europa League campaign against Cologne tonight.

However, the game has been marred by crowd trouble, delaying the kick-off by an hour.

Some 20,000 German fans are said to be at the Emirates, despite only being allocated 2900 official tickets.

And former Gunner Martin Keown has called the situation "ridiculous", blaming under-policing for the hour-long delay.

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“When you get large groups of people like this travelling to Europe you think the authorities would be aware,” Keown told BT Sport.

“They were going to the Emirates, they wanted to be there, it must have been under-policed.

“Its almost a ridiculous situation because there is only an allocation for 3000 tickets.

“They’ve now got to try and police 17,000 fans outside the ground!”

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