Martin Keown has been accused of ‘defending the indefensible’ when it comes to Arsenal by Simon Jordan.
The Gunners legend, who won three Premier League titles and four FA Cups with the club during his career, joined talkSPORT’s White and Jordan show on Monday.
The talkSPORT regular and show co-hosts Jordan and Jim White reflected on Arsenal’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea on Sunday, which saw Gabriel Martinelli’s goal cancelled out by Pedro Neto’s strike.
The result raised many questions about the Gunners’ title chances this season, with them now nine points adrift of leaders Liverpool.
Keown believes Arsenal had been lacking in creativity due to the prior absence of captain and midfielder Martin Odegaard, who started for the first time since the end of August at Stamford Bridge.
But Jordan thinks Chelsea being on par with the Gunners shows Mikel Arteta‘s side’s progression has ‘flat lined’, given the Blues were in turmoil not long ago after the sacking of Mauricio Pochettino over the summer.
He said: “This was a side Chelsea that six months ago were being considered to be a car crash, a disaster, a group of owners didn’t know what they were doing, a manager [Pochettino] was being ushered out the door, [Enzo Maresca] coming in from the Championship, from a promoted side.
“You look at the two sides, irrespective of what their spend patterns are, over a concerted period of time, and there wasn’t much difference, and one is five years into a project, and one is 11 games into it.”
Asked if that was due to Arsenal going backwards, Jordan said: “I think Arsenal have flat-lined, I don’t think they’re going forwards, I don’t think they’re regressing hugely.
“I think there’s been a slight change, a slight change in the tactics that Arteta set up, I thought it was at certain parts of the season about adding steel and resilience and know-how and savvy into their game to be able to navigate themselves through slightly choppy waters and difficult games.
“Now I think it’s because they’ve got too many players that are doing the same things. I don’t think Declan Rice is particularly shining…”
Before Jordan could finish his point on the England midfielder, Keown jumped in.
“He’s playing with a broken toe, isn’t he?” Keown said. “Him falling into the back line, if you look yesterday, there was no midfield player actually in position when Neto…. it’s a no-brainer to play Neto, by the way, on the right wing, I would never play him on the left wing.
“He cuts inside, no midfield players are actually in the midfield area, Declan Rice, with an injury, I think he’d already signalled to the bench. He sits in the back line, so that was unfortunate.
“What I will say is that Odegaard is back. When you look at Rodri, how much Man City are missing him, they got so familiar with their set-up.
“Odegaard, last season, 102 chances he creates in the Premier League. No player creates more chances than him. Odegaard, 41 times he wins the ball back in the opposition’s half.
“So with the ball, without the ball, he’s probably the most significant player in the Premier League. He comes back yesterday, creates a really good opportunity.”
However, as Keown went on to detail how 17-year-old Ethan Nwaneri will help with that issue once he’s developed, White stated Arsenal should be capable of winning games without Odegaard.
And he believed Keown was trying to detract from the original conversation about Arsenal’s current state.
“One player shouldn’t mean that much,” he said. “Are you really pivoting off Odegaard as a debate onto Nwaneri as a solution to Arsenal to win the Premier League?”
Keown replied: “I’m talking about the quality player being out of the team.
The player’s been out of the team, Merino’s been out of the team, and what I’m doing is I’m pointing to how important he was to them last season.
White then asked Jordan if he thought the Gunners’ summer recruitment was a failure.
“Well, I think ultimately failure, you know, when you’re 11 games into a season, is probably not the right terminology,” he said. “I do look at this season as a slightly strange one because the orthodoxy of this season was Man City, Arsenal, Man City, Arsenal, Man City, Arsenal, Man City, Arsenal.
“And it has this sort of feel about this season, almost like the 2015/16 season when Leicester, except the outliers are Liverpool in this instance.
“So there’s more credibility behind the team that are dominating the league than perhaps when Leicester did it. But you’re looking at Man City and Arsenal and you expected these two teams to dominate, and they’re not.
“Now, whether that’s because the opposition has gotten better, whether it’s because they’ve reached a point where, you know, they are no longer, in City’s terms, as hungry for it.
“Arsenal have built a side now for five years, and it can’t turn off one player. It just simply cannot.”
Keown then mentioned Liverpool, and that they too had been building for a similar length of time, despite Jurgen Klopp going out the door and the new Arne Slot era beginning.
“But five years into a tenure, we do have to look at things,” Jordan replied.
Asked by Keown if that meant he thinks Arteta should be sacked, he replied: “No. Don’t get all wrapped up about something because it’s your beloved Arsenal.”
And that’s when things turned up a notch in the studio.
“I’m just applying Jim’s logic of sensationalism regarding the narrative,” Keown said.
He continued: “Let’s put it out there. So if Liverpool don’t win it now, then do Liverpool bottle it? Is it Liverpool’s to lose?
“What narrative do you want to create?”
White soon hit back at the Gunners legend.
“Martin, that is, if you don’t mind me saying so, is a typical deflection act that you perform,” he said.
Keown replied: “No, no, you taught me to do that. You taught me to do that on the show.”
After a lot of back and forth between the co-stars, Jordan jumped back in.
“The point is that no one’s taught you anything,” he said. “What you do is you redirect because you cannot be objective about Arsenal. I can be objective about [Crystal] Palace. I’m sure [Jim] can be objective about the teams that he supports.
“The moment anyone talks to you about Arsenal, you reduce the conversation to something that makes it about defending the indefensible at a time. Arsenal are not progressing the way they should.”
White agreed, saying: “I do adore you, Martin, but this happens all the time.”
And much to Keown’s frustration, the feud ended with an ad break.
Arsenal will now pause for the international break and are back in action against high-flying Nottingham Forest on Saturday November 23.
