Roy Keane, a Manchester United veteran, has attacked Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta for the Gunners’ attitude in their draw with Manchester City on Sunday.
Roy Keane compared Arsenal to football ‘dinosaurs’ after their performance against Manchester City.
During Sunday’s match, the Gunners were on the verge of winning their first game at the Etihad Stadium since 2015. Riccardo Calafiori and Gabriel Magalhaes’ goals canceled out Erling Haaland’s opening, putting Arsenal on the verge of a critical three points before John Stones’ late equalizer.
Mikel Arteta’s team depended on a solid defensive to frustrate City, but after Leandro Trossard was sent off at the conclusion of the first half, their strategy became substantially more difficult. The Gunners appeared to have won until the reigning champions scored a last-gasp goal. However, Arsenal’s emphasis on defense meant that the Gunners had little attacking threat after going down a man.
Manchester United great Keane stated that Martin Odegaard’s injury has hampered Arsenal’s inventiveness and may jeopardize their title ambitions. However, the Sky Sports analyst lambasted the team’s attitude to the game, claiming that other managers would have been mocked for employing Arteta’s strategies.
“If Tony Pulis, Sam Allardyce, Steve Bruce, or Neil Warnock set up a team like that [Arsenal at Manchester City] for the second half, they are ‘dinosaurs’,” Keane stated on the Sky Bet-sponsored Stick to Football podcast. “When Arsenal does that, it’s dubbed ‘amazing’, or ‘concentration levels’.
“When they got the ball back, as they did sometimes, attempt to keep it and move up the pitch. There was an occasion in which [Ben] White simply booted it out of play, and [Declan] Rice kicked it up the pitch a few times. This is Arsenal, not a Championship team in the FA Cup, that is still hanging in there.
“They achieved a clean sheet last year, so they can see results. I don’t see anything wrong with them defending and going deep, but when they got it, they did nothing. “Martin Odegaard is a massive loss for Arsenal.”
Arsenal earned four points from their two games against City last season, but were chastised by several critics for settling for a draw at the Etihad in March rather than going all out for three. Arteta, on the other hand, has justified his team’s attitude last weekend, particularly following the red card, given how they had previously performed at City’s home ground.
“We learned from the past. Unfortunately, we’ve been in this scenario before,” the Arsenal manager explained. “We were in the same scenario as Granit [Xhaka] after 38 minutes, and we lost 5-0. We had best learn. “If not, I’d be very thick.”
