Roy Keane accused three key Arsenal players of ‘not turning up’ during their opening Premier League victory over Manchester United.
The Gunners, expected to challenge for the title yet again, were not at their best at Old Trafford but sealed the three points thanks to Riccardo Calafiori’s 13th-minute header.
Declan Rice’s inswinging corner looked relatively unthreatening but Altay Bayindir was unable to deal with it under pressure from William Saliba and Calafiori nodded home on the line.
Manchester United pushed hard for an equaliser over the next 75 minutes but Arsenal’s impressive defence held firm to secure an opening-day win.
Despite winning at Old Trafford, Keane was not blown away by Arsenal’s performance and said three key players ‘didn’t turn up’.
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The Manchester United legend was particularly critical of Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard, describing his display as ‘shocking’.
‘This was an Arsenal team where four or five of their players didn’t turn up,’ Keane told Sky Sports.
‘[Declan] Rice… Nev [Gary Neville] praised Odegaard, I thought Odegaard was shocking, Saka didn’t do too much.
‘Players off the bench didn’t do too much so this was a below par, poor performance from Arsenal.
‘But they got the result so you give them credit. From United’s point of view this wasn’t a strong Arsenal team coming at them.’
Keane added: ‘The sign of a really good team is when you’re not at your best and you win football matches.
‘The worry for me in the second half is there were opportunities to really go at Man Utd, but they seemed off it from that point of view.
‘But going forward, competing with the likes of Liverpool and Man City, they seem to want to go for that second or third goal, whereas Arsenal are thinking they’ll hold onto the lead.
‘That backfired on them last year when they had too many draws. That won’t win you league titles and they have to improve.
‘Arsenal need to be clinical in their play and really go for that second or third goal.’
Mikel Arteta hails ‘character’ of Arsenal
While his team were not at their brilliant best, Mikel Arteta was full of praise for the ‘character’ they showed to keep Manchester United at bay after taking the lead.
‘Massive win,’ he said. ‘To go in the first fixture at Old Trafford with that atmosphere, the way they are building momentum, with new signings and excitement around it, it’s a great feeling.
‘We talk about character and spirit, that’s it. I can make a mistake. How do I react to that? The way everybody tried, the defence was phenomenal.’
Asked about Arsenal’s title aspirations after three successive second-place finishes, Arteta added: ‘I just look at the players’ faces and they want much more, and we know that we are much better than in certain moments.
‘I think before I came here, it was 18 or 22 years without winning at Old Trafford, and now we come here, we won many times, and are still unsatisfied.
‘And I take that as a massive compliment, and as a way to build what we want to build.’
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