Roy Keane makes Arsenal 'DINOSAUR' claim over Mikel Arteta tactics in Man City draw

Roy Keane has likened Arsenal's approach against Manchester City to that of football "dinosaurs", despite the Gunners nearly clinching their first victory at the Etihad Stadium since 2015 in Sunday's match.

Arsenal's goals from Riccardo Calafiori and Gabriel Magalhaes, which initially overturned Erling Haaland's early goal, were almost enough for a significant win until John Stones' late equaliser for City. Arsenal, under Mikel Arteta, put up a strong defensive display that nearly saw them through, especially after Leandro Trossard's sending off just before half-time made their task tougher. Post-red card, Arsenal's focus on defence meant they posed little offensive threat.

Manchester United icon Keane pointed out that Martin Odegaard's absence might affect Arsenal's title aspirations due to a loss of creativity. Yet, speaking on the Stick to Football podcast by Sky Bet, he criticised the team's strategy, suggesting that if managers like Tony Pulis, Sam Allardyce, Steve Bruce, or Neil Warnock employed such tactics, they'd be labelled "dinosaurs".

"If Tony Pulis, Sam Allardyce, Steve Bruce or Neil Warnock set up a team like that [Arsenal at Manchester City] for the second half, they are 'dinosaurs'," Keane remarked. "When Arsenal do it, it's called 'brilliant', it's 'concentration levels'."

"When they won the ball back, which they did every now and again, try and look after it and try and get up the pitch. There was an incident when [Ben] White just kicked it out of play, [Declan] Rice a couple of times, just kicked it up the pitch. This is Arsenal we're talking about not a Championship team in the FA Cup that's hanging in there.

"They got a clean sheet last year, so they can get results. I've got nothing wrong with them