Roy Keane ripped into Martin Odegaard’s performance during Arsenal’s 1-0 victory against Manchester United, insisting he was ‘shocking’.
Mikel Arteta’s side emerged from Old Trafford with a hard-fought three points after Riccardo Calafiori capitalised on a blunder from United goalkeeper Altay Bayindir.
Bayindir had failed to punch away Declan Rice’s inswinging corner, and a deflection off the back of his gloves allowed Calafiori to steal in at the far post and touch home.
It was a promising display from the new-look hosts, who started big-money summer signings Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha and brought on £74million man Benjamin Sesko when they were chasing the game around the hour mark.
Cunha was a particular thorn in the side of the visitors, testing David Raya on three occasions, while Patrick Dorgu struck the post and Mbeumo saw a header kept out.
As a result, Arsenal were perhaps fortunate to leave with a win in their curtain raiser, and Keane believes much of Arteta’s side simply did not turn up. He reserved especially scathing criticism for captain Odegaard, however.
Roy Keane was unimpressed with Arsenal despite their 1-0 victory over Manchester United
Keane was particularly scathing of Martin Odegaard’s performance at Old Trafford
The pundit believes Mikel Arteta’s side must be more ruthless to win the title this season
Keane said on Sky Sports: ‘This was an Arsenal team who, I think four or five players turned up, right. Praise for Odegaard… I thought Odegaard was shocking.
‘[Bukayo] Saka didn’t do much, players off the bench didn’t do too much.
‘This was below par from Arsenal.’
Arsenal are widely expected to mount another charge for the Premier League title this season and Keane believes they must be more relentless to get over the line, pointing to occasions they opted to sit on a lead instead of chasing more goals.
He added: ‘From Arsenal’s point of view, the sign of a really good team is when you’re not at your best to win football matches. The worry for me, a little bit in the second half and the manager mentioned there, there were opportunities to really go at United.
‘They seemed off from that point of view. But if you can win when you’re not at your best, and that’s a big plus.
‘Going forward, when you’re competing, you’re trying to compete now with the likes of Liverpool and Man City, they seem to want to go for that second goal or that third goal, whereas Arsenal are still a bit, we got one, and we maybe hold on to it.
‘That kind of backfired a little bit last year. Again, we go back to it, they had too many draws, too many draws. That won’t win you league titles.
‘That’s where they have to improve.’
