Roy Keane was unhappy with Arsenal’s lack of composure on the ball against Man City (The Overlap)

Roy Keane says two Arsenal stars 'played like League Two players' vs Man City

26 Sep 2024, 14:23 by Chris Davie · Metro

Roy Keane has accused Declan Rice and Ben White of playing like League Two players during Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with Manchester City last Sunday.

Mikel Arteta’s side appeared to be on course for a win at the Etihad Stadium before John Stone’s injury-time equaliser rescued a point for the Premier League champions.

Arsenal were forced to play the second half with 10 men following Leandro Trossard’s red card and were unable to register a shot on target as Pep Guardiola’s men dominated after the break as they pushed to level the score.

Keane was unhappy with the lack of composure on the ball from Arsenal and believes Arteta’s players looked like ‘a small team with a small mentality’.

‘I’m not even bothered about the one up front, when you’ve got it still look after it,’ Keane said on the Stick to Football podcast.

‘You’re on about playing one up front, don’t even worry about it, 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.

Roy Keane says Arsenal played ‘like a small team with a small mentality’ (Getty)

‘I’m digging out the players. You don’t need to look at the manager and say, ‘what pass do I play?’. No, you’re playing at a pretty high level.

‘I’m on about getting four or five passes – when I see England international players just booting it out of play, what are you, League One or League Two?’

Keane also said: ‘You know the way Arsenal set up on Sunday for the second-half… if anyone else, Tony Pulis, Sam Allardyce, Steve Bruce, Neil Warnock set a team up like that for the second-half, they’re ‘dinosaurs’.

‘Arsenal set up, and I mean nothing wrong with defending, I’m on about them when they did get the ball, a couple of times they were just booting it out of play. But Arsenal do it, it’s like, ‘oh, brilliant, the concentration levels…’

‘I don’t mind defending but I’m saying when they did win the ball, when they won it back every now and again, try and look after it, try and get up the pitch.

‘There were a couple of incidents where, I think it was [Ben] White, it just bounced and he 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.

‘I’m not talking about a Championship team that’s gone in the FA Cup where they’re hanging in there. Remember, they got a clean sheet there last year so they have got results there.

‘Nothing wrong with defending and going deep, no problem. But when they got it, you go, ‘Can you try and do something?’ They were just booting it up the pitch.’

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