Arsenal are a ‘SMALL club with a small mentality’, blasts Roy Keane as he doubles down on his criticism after Man City draw – insisting they used the same tactics against Brighton
Roy Keane criticised Arsenal as a ‘small club with a small mentality’ after they defended with their backs to the wall in the 2-2 draw with Manchester City.
The former midfielder criticised the Gunners for ‘just doing it’ when they had to play with ten men, saying their similar performance against Brighton was testament to their ‘little boy’ mentality.
Arsenal came close to securing victory against City after having to play the second half without Leandro Trossard, similar to their defensive display after losing Declan Rice in the 1-1 draw with Brighton in August.
Ian Wright felt Keane was too harsh in criticising Mikel Arteta’s men for employing a tactic that had put them ahead until John Stones intervened in the 98th minute.
“They just did it, as a small team with a small mentality,” Keane told the Podcast Stay with Footballoffered by Sky Betting.
Roy Keane has criticised Arsenal as a ‘small club with a small mentality’ for their defensive mentality against Manchester City
Arsenal played the entire second half with 10 men after Leandro Trossard was sent off
‘Go back three or four weeks, Arsenal did the same thing against Brighton with 10 or 15 minutes to go – the keeper went down at home against Brighton.
‘The idea that they went to the great Manchester City, their mentality against Brighton at home was exactly the same – that’s my argument.
“I say if you have it, you still have to take good care of it. If you have it, try to fit four or five times in a row.
‘They were wasting time at home against Brighton so forget it, it was Man City.’
Substitute 17-year-old Myles Lewis-Skelly was shown a yellow card before he even came on. New footage obtained exclusively by Mail Sport shows him passing a message to goalkeeper David Raya.
Referee Michael Oliver showed Lewis-Skelly a yellow card after the substitute trotted behind Raya’s goal line during the 65th minute warm-up with the Gunners leading 2-1. Oliver saw the 17-year-old communicate with Raya before the Arsenal goalkeeper fell to the ground and stopped the match.
Wright clashed with Keane over his assessment of Arsenal’s performances.
He hit back: ‘We weren’t wasting time (against Brighton), we were still going for it.’
Ian Wright doesn’t accuse Arsenal of taking a conservative approach with a man missing
Arsenal youngster Myles Lewis-Skelly was shown a yellow card against Manchester City
New footage obtained by Mail Sport appears to show the teenager speaking to David Raya
Raya then went down with an injury, causing the match at the Etihad Stadium to be halted.
Arsenal came close to securing victory, but the win was thwarted in the 98th minute by a goal from John Stones
Arteta watched as his team squandered their lead in the eighth minute of injury time
‘We’ve seen what Manchester City do with teams that play with ten men, we [Arsenal] had to do something different – and it almost worked.
‘I’m not going to lie and say I’ve seen something like this happen before, where you don’t even have an outlet, because at some point you have to give the defenders some rest.
“They missed Martin Odegaard to pass the ball to someone to foul, waste time or fall. I’m not going to criticise them, especially at Man City, with 10 men, trying to win a game.
Arsenal were incensed when Trossard was shown a second yellow card 10 minutes into first-half injury time after kicking the ball away from a City free-kick after fouling Bernardo Silva.
Rice had been sent off against Brighton for the same offence, but instead of learning from the incident, Arsenal were still seething with anger.
“It’s so clear that there’s no need for me to comment,” Arteta said. “It’s the second time. I’m 1727343653 expect 100 Premier League games to be played as 10 vs 11, or 10 vs 9. Let’s take a look.
“I think it’s very clear what people think about the red card. It’s not my job to come here and judge what happened. My job is to survive in one of the most difficult environments in football, for 55 minutes, and try to get things done to survive.
‘It’s happened twice in five games already, which is very worrying to see in the top league.’
Arsenal’s defenders looked dispirited after failing to secure victory over their title rivals
Erling Haaland toe-tipped the ball past David Raya to score the opening goal of the match
The Norwegian’s strike was his 100th Premier League goal in just his 105th appearance for City
City took the lead nine minutes into the match when Erling Haaland converted a superb through ball from Savinho to fire the ball past David Raya for his 100th goal for the club.
However, Arsenal did not sit back and wait.
Riccardo Calafiori scored a beautiful curling ball to level the score and Gabriel headed the ball in first-half injury time to give the Gunners a lead into half-time, but Trossard was sent off just before half-time.
After the break they played with their backs against the wall and held their ground against an increasingly frustrated City, who shot 33 times on target.
The Gunners looked to have completed Mission Impossible until Stones capitalised on a pinball in the penalty area to take home a point.
Roy Keane and Ian Wright spoke about the Podcast Stay with Footballoffered by Sky Betting.