Martin Keown says Arsenal allowed to ‘strut around’ in ’s win over the Gunners, believing Rob Holding lost his battle with the striker from ‘the very first challenge’.
, a victory that leaves them favourites to win the Premier League title having cut the gap on the leaders to two points with two games in hand.
With William Saliba ruled out and likely to miss the rest of the season, Holding has been tasked with filling the void but was given a torrid evening by Haaland and Kevin de Bruyne, who scored twice on the night.
Haaland superbly held the ball up before freeing the Belgian for City’s opener with Keown insisting the Arsenal centre-half should have ‘taken a booking’ to try and impose himself against the striker.
‘If I was playing, Haaland would be all I was thinking about,’ Keown told BT Sport.
‘Holding lost that battle. The very first challenge, that’s where they concede the first goal.
‘You’ve got to put your marker down, you’ve got to be physical, maybe take a booking. But Haaland is just strutting around that pitch and it looked really easy at times.
‘That’s something these young Arsenal defenders are going to have to learn, and learn quickly.’
Arsenal were schooled at times by City who dominated the contest from the opening minute. Arteta pinpointed the first 30 minutes as a key period in the game where his side ‘didn’t do the basics’
‘The analysis is clear: the better team won the game,’ Arteta said in his post-match press conference.
‘They were probably at their best, especially in the first half, and we were nowhere near our level.
‘When that happens, the gap becomes too big and in the first 30 minutes we didn’t do all the basic things that you have to do against an exceptional team, in terms of competing, winning duels and understanding what the game requires.
‘We got punished and we could have been punished even more.’
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