Arsenal were slammed for playing like "dinosaurs" against Manchester City as Roy Keane launched a scathing assessment of Mikel Arteta's tactics.
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Man City fought back to earn a 2-2 drawArsenal played with 10 men in second halfDug deep in an attempt to shut out CityFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?
The Gunners found themselves reduced to 10 men after Leandro Trossard was shown a second yellow card for time-wasting late in the first half. After the dismissal of the Belgian, Arteta instructed his men to adopt an ultra-defensive stance by retreating deep into their own half in a bid to protect a slender 2-1 lead.
AdvertisementImagoTHE BIGGER PICTURE
Despite their efforts to stifle City, Arsenal eventually conceded in stoppage time, with John Stones scoring a dramatic equaliser to secure a 2-2 draw. They had only 12.5 per cent of the ball in the second half with Jurrien Timber and Kai Havertz setting an unwanted Premier League record as they failed to complete a single pass in the match.
WHAT KEANE SAID
Speaking on Keane lashed out at Arteta and said: "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’. 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."
DID YOU KNOW?
Keane didn’t stop at just calling out Arsenal’s defensive display; he also criticised what he perceived as a “small team mentality.”
"I'm on about when you've got it [the ball], still look after it," he said.
"Don't even worry about playing one up front, but when you do get it try and get four, five, six passes. They were just booting it like a small team with a small mentality. When I see England international players just booting it out of play I'm going: 'What are you? League One? League Two?'"
