Martin Keown and William Saliba (Photo by Michael Regan, Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
Arsenal legend Martin Keown has made a rather worrying observation ahead of the club’s huge upcoming Champions League semi-final clash against Paris Saint-Germain.
The Gunners recently beat Real Madrid 5-1 on aggregate in the Champions League quarter-finals, and there’ll be some fans getting very excited about their prospects of winning the competition after such a statement result.
Still, Keown thinks we’re seeing some signs of sloppiness creeping in from William Saliba in particular.
The France international is normally such a solid and reliable defender for Arsenal, but he made a mistake for Vinicius Junior’s equaliser at the Bernabeu, and again for Jean-Philippe Mateta’s goal at the Emirates Stadium last night.
Arsenal were 2-1 up and looked to be heading for a win, but Crystal Palace punished that sloppy play to grab a 2-2 draw in the end.
Martin Keown concerned about William Saliba’s recent errors
Speaking on punditry duty after the game, as quoted by the Metro, Keown was clearly concerned by Saliba making another mistake so soon after the one in Madrid.
“I think Saliba, if I’m working with him [I am saying], ‘don’t switch off’,” Keown said.
“The game they played against Real Madrid, the goalkeeper rolled it out to him just after they scored and it’s as if he hasn’t got a picture, he wasn’t alert.
“It’s twice now that’s happened in successive games – he just needs to sharpen up.
“I think it’s crept in because of the sloppiness with Arsenal just trying to see out games, tonight was a victory in not getting injuries, because there’s a huge game coming up and I think when you’re just down from 100 per cent, you make mistakes.”
Arsenal’s focus will probably be more on the Champions League than the Premier League right now, so that might explain why they weren’t quite at their best last night.
Still, they’ll need to sharpen up quickly if they are to stand any chance of getting past PSG and into the Champions League final.
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