Martin Keown crying because Newcastle United didn’t let Arsenal win – Hilarious

Martin Keown has been asked for his opinion(s) on what happened at The Emirates on Tuesday night.

The match ending Arsenal 0 Newcastle 0.

Much debate afterwards about the disgraceful conduct of Mikel Arteta on the touchline, trying to unduly influence the match officials into giving his team decisions. His pathetic antics clearly from the Jurgen Klopp school of touchline management.

Whilst Arsenal have been charged by The FA for failing to control their players, as they attempted to intimidate and bully the referee.

Martin Keown interviewed on Talksport about what happened on Tuesday night at The Emirates:

Interviewer:

“Mikel Arteta’s antics on the touchline, do they need to be calmed down a little bit?”

Martin Keown:

“I’m not going to tell him how to behave.

“I want a bit of passion.

“I certainly don’t think the manager is a clown, people saying that, is absolutely ridiculous.

“He is full of passion.

“You can see that energy and he energises his team to go and match that, (with) the enthusiasm he shows on the sideline.

“Yes, of course he has to keep a lid on things…”

Interviewer:

“Did he cross the line though (against Newcastle United)?”

Martin Keown:

“Ermm, I don’t believe…it didn’t offend me.

“Look, Arteta knows how to behave and he has been outstanding in what he has done at Arsenal.”

Spoilers!

Martin Keown:

“Newcastle probably, are one of the best sort of  spoilers in the league.

“The way that they delay, their professionalism.

“I mean, when their substitute (Jamaal Lascelles) gets booked for delaying a throw in coming onto the pitch and it is the second time this season, you know that the team is working really hard to try and delay games.”

Interviewer:

“The master of the dark arts?”

Martin Keown:

“Yes…and being professional. That is what happened.”

Interviewer:

“The referee didn’t help, did he?”

Martin Keown:

“He didn’t help. He started booking, I think…

“There was only one team trying play football…and he started booking the Arsenal players first.

“Then everybody looked like they were going to get booked when they made a tackle.

“And that’s actually the first time he’s ever done a game at The Emirates, that referee, I thought, was it too big for him?

“If I was a player in that game, right from the beginning I would have gone to the referee and said, I feel like there is time wasting taking place.

“Joelinton hit the deck so many times, it was ridiculous.

“And there is one or two instances…and I am going to get criticism for this…if you have a head injury, please be genuine. Please only go down if you have a head injury. Don’t abuse the rule where you go down where you are holding your head and there is nothing wrong with you. We can see on the replay there wasn’t actually contact.”

Now, if you were really, really, really, really cynical…

You might jump to the conclusion that playing 310 times and spending 11 years at Arsenal from 1993-2004, might just have influenced these Martin Keown comments a teeny weeny bit.

I am quite sure that if the roles had been reversed in terms of what the two teams (and managers…) did on Tuesday night, Martin Keown would have said exactly the same, accusing Arsenal of all the above and saying Eddie Howe and his players did absolutely nothing wrong, how the referee was totally biased against Newcastle and so on.

Or maybe not.

It is quite pathetic, Martin Keown letting the fact that he is an ‘Arsenal man’ totally influence what he says.

I normally think he is pretty good but clearly such a massive blind spot when it comes to his own team, making his analysis on an Arsenal game absolutely worthless.

To claim Mikel Arteta did nothing wrong puts him in a very small minority, even many other Arsenal fans have admitted that he was totally out of order on Tuesday.

Martin Keown even tries to mislead and make up his own ‘facts’, claiming how unfair it was that the referee starting booking Arsenal players first.

Well seen as Bruno (27 minutes) and Callum Wilson (28 minutes) were the first ones Andy Madley booked on the night, it just makes Martin Keown look even more of a fool.

His agenda is how Arsenal were supposedly totally the victims, the world against them, yet it was Newcastle United who were the ones mostly on the receiving end, Joelinton was even booked and a free-kick given in a very dangerous position, despite TV replays clearly showing the Brazilian had played the ball and it wasn’t even a foul, never mind a booking.

Martin Keown moans that Joelinton went down so often. Well I wasn’t timing it but I reckon very likely that the player spending most time lying down and delaying the match, pretending to be injured, was definitely Bukayo Saka. The Arsenal winger getting ever more frustrated and resorting to cheating and trying to get the opposition booked and sent off, because after the first 20 minutes it was Dan Burn who clearly got the best of their duel.

For those of us around in the 90s, it was Arsenal who were the kings of gamesmanship, match after match they would hope to get a goal and then try every legal and illegal trick in the rule book, to get them (one nil to the Arsenal) over the line.

Martin Keown talks about Newcastle being supposedly the ‘best spoilers’ in the Premier League.

In the second half Eddie Howe and his players did try and do everything they could to keep the match goalless, stretching the rule book, just as Leeds did at St James’ Park three days earlier. It is what teams do when they realise that doing anything else will lead to almost certain defeat.

In the first half Newcastle did try to play football, after weathering the first 20 minutes, Eddie Howe’s team did alright before the break. In that opening half, Newcastle had more corners than Arsenal, the same number of shots on target, only one less shot than Arsenal overall in the first 45, whilst also creating easily the best chance, when Joelinton somehow headed over from three yards out.

Into the second half, Eddie Howe quickly realising this was a night when a point would be a great result, shut up shop. The only other instances of this, would be for me, a good part of the second half at both Liverpool and Brighton.

Outside of those, Newcastle United have pretty much been on the front foot.

The 3-3 with Man City, the wins at Tottenham (1-2), Leicester (0-3), Southampton (1-4), Fulham (1-4) and so on.

Hammering Villa (4-0) and Brentford (5-1) at St James’ Park, as well as taking the game to and beating Chelsea 1-0.

You play the occasion.

Second half at Arsenal became an occasion where 0-0 would be a great outcome.

Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal players couldn’t handle the fact that the opposition were not willing to roll over. The Gunners having won every home Premier League match and scored in every PL game home and away, they were unwilling to accept that Newcastle United came to The Emirates and got their game plan exactly right.

Arsenal and their fans, including Martin Keown, should have the integrity to accept that, instead of throwing the toys out of their collective prams, claiming how unfair life is!