MARTIN KEOWN blasted Arsenal AGAIN as he backed protests against their owners and said the club is ‘going backwards’.
The ex-defender said manager Mikel Arteta was fortunate to avoid being sacked after the Gunners were knocked out of the Europa League semi-final.
Off the back of the 0-0 draw against Villarreal, which saw Arsenal lose 2-1 on aggregate, they came into their league match with West Brom in a miserable mood.
And that was reflected by pundit Keown, who questioned Emirates owner Stan Kroenke amid speculation Spotify founder Daniel Ek is preparing a takeover bid.
Keown said on BT Sport: “The fans need to have their say. The club is becoming stagnated. There’s a lack of investment.
“The Kroenkes – do they really love the club? They need to spend massively. Leno won’t sign a new contract. Luiz is leaving.
“Bellerin isn’t signing a new contract. There’s a remarkable amount of players that are uncertain of their futures.
“Arteta needs to take some responsibility. He’s outsmarted himself. He needs to keep it simple.
“I do believe he’s an outstanding coach, he needs to prove he’s an outstanding manager. It’s going to be difficult to back him if he loses again.
“It’s about results. He’s been here 18 months and he’s won an FA Cup, but when we look at league form it’s fallen away.
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“The football club is going backwards and they have to arrest that slide.
“How much of the problem is about the manager and how much is about the squad?
“The manager is concerning me because he always blames the players. Massive expenditure is needed. New owners could be the catalyst.”
Arsenal went on to beat West Brom 3-1, confirming the Baggies relegation, as Arteta admitted the win was a much needed confidence boost.
He said: “We needed that win. It has been a while since we won at home.
“We scored three fantastic goals and we had some great spells in the game. When we conceded the goal we did look nervy.
“We knew the necessity to win the game. They scored out of nothing and then throw everything at you, they know the situation they are in and we struggled to play that kind of game.
“We scored three fantastic goals but we missed some big chances too.
“Europe is a completely different game, different context. There were things we could have done much better.”
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
