'Flat': Simon Jordan irritates Martin Keown with Arsenal claim and accuses Gunners legend of 'defending the indefensible'

Martin Keown has been accused by Simon Jordan of “defending the indefensible” when it comes to Arsenal.

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.

talkSPORT's regular and show hosts Jordan and Jim White reflected on Arsenal's 1-1 draw with Chelsea on Sunday, in which Gabriel Martinelli's goal was canceled by a goal from Pedro Neto.

The result raised many doubts about the Gunners' title chances this season, who are now nine points behind the leaders. Liverpool.

Keown believes Arsenal have lacked creativity due to the previous absence of captain and midfielder Martin Odegaard, who started for the first time since late August at Stamford Bridge.

But Jordan believes Chelsea are on par with the Gunners. Mikel ArtetaThe team's progression has stalled, given that the Blues were in crisis not long ago following Mauricio Pochettino's sacking over the summer.

He said: “This was a Chelsea that six months ago was considered a car crash, a disaster, a group of owners didn't know what they were doing, a manager (Pochettino) was being kicked out the door. (Enzo Maresca) coming from the Championship , coming from a promoted team.

“If you look at the two sides, regardless of what their spending patterns are, over a concerted period of time, there wasn't much difference, and one is five years into the project and the other is 11 games in.”

Asked if that was because Arsenal were going backwards, Jordan said: “I think Arsenal have stagnated, I don't think they are moving forward, I don't think they are going backwards massively.

“I think there has been a slight change, a slight change in the tactics that Arteta established, I thought that in certain parts of the season it was about adding steel, resistance, knowledge and guile to their game to be able to navigate themselves through of slightly rough waters and difficult games.

“Now I think it's because they have too many players doing the same things. I don't think Declan Rice is particularly brilliant…”

Before Jordan could finish his point on the England midfielder, Keown intervened.

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“He's playing with a broken finger, isn't he?” Keown said. “He fell on the back line, if you look at yesterday, there was no midfielder in position when Neto… it's a no-brainer to play with Neto, by the way, on the right wing, I would never put him on the right wing. left wing.

“He cuts inside, there's actually no midfielder in the midfield area, Declan Rice, with an injury, I think he'd already signaled to the bench. “He sits on the backline, so it was unfortunate.

“What I will say is that Odegaard is back. When you look at Rodri, you will see how much Manchester City miss him, they became very familiar with his set-up.

“Odegaard, last season, created 102 chances in the Premier League. No player creates more chances than him. Odegaard recovered the ball 41 times in the opponent's half.

“So, with the ball and without the ball, he is probably the most important player in the Premier League. He came back yesterday and created a very good chance.”

However, while Keown details how 17-year-old Ethan Nwaneri will help with that issue once it has developed, White claimed Arsenal should be able to win games without Odegaard.

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And he believed Keown was trying to downplay the original conversation about Arsenal's current state.

“One player shouldn't mean much,” he said. “Are you really diverting the debate from Odegaard to Nwaneri as a solution for Arsenal to win the Premier League?”

Keown responded: “I'm talking about the quality player being out of the team.

The player has been out of the team, Merino has been out of the team, and what I'm doing is pointing out how important he was for 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, probably isn't the right terminology,” he said. “I see this season as a bit strange because the orthodoxy of this season was Man City, Arsenal, Man City, Arsenal, Man City, Arsenal, Man City, Arsenal.

“And it has this kind of feeling about this season, almost like the 2015/16 season when Leicester, except the outlier is Liverpool in this case.

“So there's more credibility behind the team dominating the league than maybe when Leicester did it. But you're looking at Manchester City and Arsenal and you expected those two teams to dominate, and they're not.

“Now, either because the opposition has improved, or because they've reached a point where, in City terms, they're not as hungry for it anymore.

“Arsenal have built a team for five years and they can't switch off a player. They just can't.”

Keown then mentioned Liverpool, and that they too had been building for a similar period of time, even though Jurgen Klopp walked out the door and the new Arne Slot era began.

“But after five years in office, we have to look at things,” Jordan responded.

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Asked by Keown if that meant he thinks Arteta should be sacked, he replied: “No. Don't get obsessed with something because it's your beloved Arsenal.”

And that's when things got better in the studio.

“I'm just applying Jim's tabloid logic to the narrative,” Keown said.

He continued: “Let's put it out there. So if Liverpool don't win now, will Liverpool bottle it? Is Liverpool the one to lose?”

“What narrative do you want to create?”

White soon responded to the Gunners legend.

“Martin, if you don't mind me telling you, that's a typical deviant act you do,” he said.

Keown responded, “No, no, you taught me how to do that. You taught me how to do that on the show.”

After many exchanges between the co-stars, Jordan intervened again.

“The thing is, no one has taught you anything,” he said. “What you do is redirect because you can't be objective about Arsenal. I can be objective about (Crystal) Palace. I'm sure (Jim) can be objective about the teams he supports.

“The moment someone talks to you about Arsenal, you reduce the conversation to something that revolves around defending the indefensible in a moment. Arsenal are not progressing as they should.”

White agreed, saying, “I love you, Martin, but this happens all the time.”

And much to Keown's frustration, the dispute ended with an ad break.

Arsenal will now take a break for the international break and return to action against high-flying Nottingham Forest on Saturday 23 November.