Arsenal legend Martin Keown was left fuming by former Man Utd goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel’s comments about the Gunners’ playing style.
The Gunners made a good start to the new season with two wins from their opening two fixtures against Man Utd and Leeds before their narrow 1-0 defeat to Premier League champions Liverpool.
Their loss to the Reds was down to a Dominik Szoboszlai wonder strike in the second half, which gave Liverpool all three points, but Arsenal‘s playing style was criticised after the match.
Some critics want to see Mikel Arteta give his players more attacking freedom, while Man Utd legend Peter Schmeichel called it “an ugly brand of football”.
Schmeichel said on Viaplay after the match: “I have never in my life, ever, wanted a team to win a game of football more than Liverpool today.
“Arsenal bring an ugly brand of football to our game. Arteta… let your team play football! Let them loose, let them be free!
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“I am absolutely convinced that if Arteta does this, they will win more games.”
Schmeichel added: “I don’t want to insult Arsenal but their brand of football is so annoying to watch.
“It’s designed to exploit opponents while watching for set pieces.”
Many had predicted Arsenal to cause Liverpool problems after Arne Slot’s side conceded four goals in their first two Premier League matches, despite winning both fixtures.
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But Arteta took the cautious approach by starting Gabriel Martinelli and Mikel Merino over a more attacking line up involving Eberechi Eze and Martin Odegaard.
Keown agrees that he wants to see Arsenal show more attacking intent in some matches but hit out at Schmeichel for his “deranged” comments that the Gunners play an “ugly” style of football.
He told talkSPORT: “We want more. Arsenal I feel now are at the stage where it’s a mentality change.
“They need to change gear, they’ve really got to go after it. You’ve got to have the eye of the tiger to really go and win these games.
“Looking back, I hope we don’t regret it, but it’s too early in the season to write Arsenal off.
“I don’t know if it’s been calm in the media, I’ve listened to some people, sometimes these ex-players like Peter Schmeichel has said that Arsenal bring something ‘ugly’ to the Premier League.
“I think that’s deranged, what’s he talking about.”
Keown added: “Was it ugly when they changed the back-pass rule in 1992 because it was him [Schmeichel] that was one of the advocates of that?
“Everyone kept passing it back to him, that was ugly as well. But look, Arsenal are a long way down the line to being successful.
“We can compare clubs, Arsenal and Manchester United, maybe I’m rising to the bait…
“But I think Arsenal look good right now, it’s not lucky Arsenal anymore, by the way, with all these injuries.
“That will clear up and they’ve now got a squad to go the distance, but Liverpool are still ahead.”