Martin Keown losing faith on Mikel Arteta

Martin Keown not sure if Arteta is the right man to fix Arsenal’s problems.

Keown told BT Sport: “For me, it was about Arsenal, the way they played and imposed themselves on the opposition.

“By sitting off early in the encounter, I thought they’d chosen the wrong tactics and there was an opportunity to do that tonight, to really take the initiative and ask them the question: ‘Can you play? Can you pass that ball out from the back? We’ll see how good you are’.

“But they were allowed to settle, to build, and to become more dominant. In that first-half, it was quite difficult for Arsenal, they became nervous, they were not the team we saw just two or three weeks ago – for instance, the second-half performance against West Ham.

“It seems like Arsenal aren’t proactive in games, they need somebody to slap them in the face, or punch them in the face, before they wake up and start to play. He did it today in the second-half with the substitutions and he made that happen, but then they couldn’t see it through, it was hugely disappointing.

“It’s going to be tough for [Mikel] Arteta because he’s made a lot of changes within the football club, a lot of people have been allowed to go, this is his team now essentially.

“There’s been a lot of problems for Arsenal for years, with certain people coming in and out of the football club, it’s not at his doorstep, but he’s in charge now and he’s not quite getting the reaction from his team.

“He’s encouraging to play, and at the end he doesn’t want them to play, it’s a mixed message, isn’t it? You’ve got to do the right thing at the right time and they’re making mistakes and it cost them tonight.”

See More: Top 5 Arsenal Players Who Can Leave 2021: Transfer News Latest