Roy Keane gives scathing assessment of Arsenal’s tactics against Man City
Roy Keane has suggested that Arsenal used tactics that football „dinosaurs“ would be accused of resorting to in their 2-2 draw with Manchester City last weekend.
The Gunners were leading 2-1 at the Etihad Stadium but then saw Leandro Trossard sent off in first-half stoppage time. The tactical instructions from Mikel Arteta after the break were clear, with Arsenal sitting deep, at times with six defenders, and leaving no one up front.
It almost worked, stifling what Manchester City could create by completely squeezing the space in and around the penalty area. But the resistance was broken in the eighth minute of stoppage time when John Stones turned in a rebound to equalise.
How Arsenal set up in the second half has been a major talking point all week and Keane addressed it while appearing on the latest episode of the Stick to Football podcast. The former Manchester United captain didn’t like the praise directed Arsenal’s way, calling it hypocritical.
„If Tony Pulis, Sam Allardyce, Steve Bruce or Neil Warnock set up a team like that for the second half, they are ‚dinosaurs‘. When Arsenal do it, it’s called ‚brilliant‘, it’s ‚concentration levels‘,“ he said.
„When they won the ball back, which they did every now and again, try and look after it and try and get up the pitch. There was an incident when [Ben] White just kicked it out of play, [Declan] Rice a couple of times, just kicked it up the pitch. This is Arsenal we’re talking about – not a Championship team in the FA Cup – that’s hanging in there.
„They got a clean sheet last year, so they can get results. I’ve got nothing wrong with them defending and going deep, but when they got [the ball], they didn’t do anything. Martin Odegaard is a massive loss to Arsenal.“
Odegaard hasn’t played since suffering ankle ligament damage on international duty with Norway earlier this month. Arteta admitted it could be a „while“, but hopefully „not months“, before his captain is back in action, although Norway coach Stale Solbakken angered Arsenal fans this week by stating that he hasn’t yet ruled out selecting Odegaard for October’s internationals.