Keown stunned by ‘quite magnificent’ Arsenal star in ‘immense’ display vs Brentford | OneFootball

Martin Keown’s never short of kind words for Arsenal players and after a game in which they were roundly outplayed by Brentford at the Gtech he lavished most praise upon a Gunners star.

Brentford ended the game with an xG of 1.56 to Arsenal’s 0.83 and had several chances to win the game after Keane Lewis-Potter had cancelled out Noni Madueke’s opener.

And Keown did admit after the game that his former side had “scraped through” with a point and wants to “see who the fighters are” in the Arsenal dressing room after Manchester City cut their lead at the top of the Premier League to four points following their comfortable victory over Fulham.

“If you can’t win it, then you can’t lose it, it is one of those,” Keown said on TNT Sports. “In the past, we have seen Arsenal teams not get what they needed.

“When they reflect on this, obviously they weren’t at their best, but they have come away a point and at the end of the day they are now four points clear.

“Arsenal scraped through here tonight. They could have put down a big marker if they won the match, but it never looked like that was going to be the case.

“Arsenal will see that as a good pint well-earned, in the end I think. Nothing has really gone wrong here for Arsenal – big drama, let’s move on.

“See, you get knocked down, you get up again. Let’s see who the fighters are and let’s see who is going to win this.”

Eberechi Eze was hooked at half-time in favour of Martin Odegaard, whom Keown claims made a significant difference, but the Gunners legend bestowed most praise on the “quite magnificent” Declan Rice.

“Arsenal were much better in the second half, without a doubt,” he added.

“What Odegaard does well is often missed, the way he presses high up the pitch meant Brentford couldn’t play through the midfield in the way they wanted.

“It was a good moment for Arsenal when they scored but Brentford were making it so difficult for them.

“I thought the standout player for Arsenal was Declan Rice, it was immense the ground he was covering. He was the standout player, he was quite magnificent.

“You take the point because it’s a local derby and it was intense. Credit to Brentford and Keith Andrews because they’ve really developed and added even more to what Thomas Frank did here.

“I couldn’t see Arsenal surviving without conceding a set-piece in that final half an hour and the pressure told in the end.”