Roy Keane slams Arsenal and Mikel Arteta with 'dinosaur' and 'small team mentality' comments

Roy Keane has slammed Arsenal's 'dinosaur' tactics in the second half of their dramatic 2-2 draw with Manchester City.

The gunners They deployed a highly defensive strategy after Leandro Trossard was sent off just before half-time when they had a 2-1 lead.

By Mikel Arteta The team conceded a goal in added time City a precious point and have been criticised for defending en masse as well as wasting time during the second half.

Manchester United legend Keane In particular, he was not a fan of their game plan and compared their tactics to those of football's so-called “dinosaurs”.

“How bad was Arsenal?” he asked in the Stay with football podcast. “Oh my God. Can I tell you something?

“You know how Arsenal prepared for the second half on Sunday… If Tony Pulis, Sam Allardyce, Steve Bruce, Neil Warnock prepared a team like that for the second half, they are 'dinosaurs'.

“Arsenal prepared, and I don't want to say there's anything wrong with defending, I'm talking about them when they got the ball, a couple of times they just kicked it out of play. But Arsenal do it, it's like, 'Oh, brilliant. Levels of concentration…'

Arsenal legend Ian Wright asked: “What should they have done?”

And Keane replied: “I don't mind defending, but I say that when they won the ball, when they won it back from time to time, they tried to look after it, they tried to get up the pitch.

“There were a couple of incidents where, I think it was (Ben) White, it just bounced off and he just kicked it out of play. (Declan) Rice, a couple of them just kicked it upfield, we're talking about Arsenal.

“I'm not talking about a Championship team that's been in the FA Cup and is hanging on. Remember, they didn't concede there last year, so they've got results there. Wrighty, I mean when are they…

“There's nothing wrong with defending and playing deep, there's no problem. But when they got it, you said, 'Can you try to do something?' They were just kicking up the field.”

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Keane also pointed out that this is not the first time Arsenal have used such tactics with ten men this season, recalling the 1-1 draw at home to Brighton.

Rice was shown a second yellow card for delaying the restart and the Gunners defended in numbers to seal a point, with a mentality Keane would not attribute to a Premier League giant.

“Let's go back three or four weeks ago, with ten or fifteen minutes left in the game, please people, look at it, they did the same thing against Brighton,” he said.

“The goalkeeper (David Raya) went down (wasting time)… Brighton at home, so this idea, 'Oh, they've gone to the great Man City', their mentality against Brighton at home was exactly the same, that's my argument… that was for a draw.”

Keane added: “I'm not worried about even having a player up front, I'm worried that when you have him, you look after him. Even the extra man up front… Not the extra man, but if you're thinking about putting one up front, don't even worry about that.

“But when they got it, they tried to make four, five, six passes, they were just doing it like a small team with a small mentality.”

Jamie Carragher joked: “Oh, there's your headline.”

Pep Guardiola's side lead the Premier League on 13 points, two clear of fourth-placed Arsenal, with both teams still unbeaten.

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