Martin Keown absolutely furious with comments he’s heard about Arsenal after Liverpool draw

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Of all of the former Arsenal players who are prevalent as pundits these days, Martin Keown deserves praise for properly backing his former club.

Robert Pires was called into question for his Bukayo Saka comments, eventually settling the light-hearted matter with the Arsenal winger.

Whilst Arsenal fans won’t be in favour of biassed coverage towards their team, it’s redeeming when someone like Keown protects their former club in the media.

Mikel Arteta’s side are often held to a higher standard in the press, perhaps because of what they’ve achieved in the past and how long it’s been since they’ve repeated that success.

That being said, Roy Keane criticised Arsenal’s mentality after their 2-2 draw with Liverpool on Sunday.

Keane thought Saka looked downbeat after the game and suggested that Arsenal needed to be more proactive – comments Keown has responded to.

Martin Keown responds to Roy Keane’s comments about Arsenal’s mentality

Speaking via talkSPORT, Keown said it didn’t surprise him that Keane was taking ‘pot shots’ at Arsenal.

Talking to Jim White, Keown said: “Roy Keane, pot shots at Arsenal, we know where that comes from all along.

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“Lets just look at the game yesterday, what happened in front of us – I’m not going down that line, I thought Arsenal looked very good in the game, I was really impressed.

“Because a lot of people going into that game thought Arsenal were going to get blown away.

White replied: “But are you worrying about [David] Raya time wasting with 20 minutes to go?”

Keown: “But that’s game management, isn’t it? If you watched the game there was a period they, look Jim, we talked about Timber hanging on, we talked about Kiwior, we talked about 54 minutes [gone] you lose Gabriel.

“So they wanted to take their time in the game, that’s just game management, that’s what they did.

“Now look, if Liverpool do that there’s not a problem, but as soon as Arsenal do it everybody is on their back.”

Roy Keane was impressed by Declan Rice against Liverpool

Although Keane wasn’t impressed with how Arsenal managed the game against Liverpool, he did praise Declan Rice.

Keane thought Rice’s pass was ‘sublime’ for Mikel Merino’s header that put Arsenal 2-1 ahead at the Emirates Stadium.

Rice played as a number six given that Thomas Partey was filling in at right-back.

Partey was excellent up against Luis Diaz, proving what a versatile option he is for Arteta.

And with that in mind, Arsenal are taking a closer look at Partey’s contract situation.