Roy Keane has been left with egg on his face (Image: Getty)
legend has been left with egg on his face following his stinging attack on .
The pundit criticised ’s tactics against after his side were reduced to 10 men following Leandro Trossard’s dismissal, with the Gunners putting every player behind the ball in the hope of clinging on to their 2-1 lead.
John Stones ultimately equalised for City in the 98th minute after a valiant defensive performance from , a display of qualities which Keane appeared to call for when speaking about the club in 2015.
After the Gunners had lost to Olympiacos in the Champions League, he said: “Listen, they’re soft. are soft. They’re weak. The goals they give away, you’ve got no chance of winning any big game if you defend like that.
“I think there’s certainly a weakness to the group, they look like they lack characters, leaders and winners. I enjoy watching , I think they’re great to watch, particularly going forward. But part of football is, unfortunately, is defending. And mentally, they’re weak.”
Although they did concede in the dying embers of the clash at the Etihad Stadium, ’s defensive work in the second half received nothing but praise given that they minimised the threat of and .
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Keane criticised Mikel Arteta’s tactical decisions (Image: Getty)
With a backline made up of six centre-backs, the Gunners managed to hold back the relentless waves of City attacks, showing no signs of mental weakness. However, despite showing the qualities that Keane called for, the ex-midfielder appeared unsatisfied with how earned the point.
Speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, he said: “If Tony Pulis, Sam Allardyce, Steve Bruce or Neil Warnock set up a team like that [ at ] for the second half, they are ‘dinosaurs’. When do it, it’s called ‘brilliant’, it’s ‘concentration levels’.
Footage of Roy Keane’s old comments have resurfaced online (Image: Getty)
“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 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 it, they didn’t do anything. Martin Odegaard is a massive loss to .”