Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane has said that Arsenal got out of jail with their 2-2 draw against CSKA Moscow on Thursday night.
Arsenal trailed CSKA 2-0 in the second leg of their Europa League quarter-final as goals from Fyodor Chalov and Kirill Nababkin pulled Moscow within one goal of levelling the 4-1 aggregate score from the first leg at the Emirates.
Second-half goals from Danny Welbeck and Aaron Ramsey secured the Gunners a 6-3 win on aggregate but Keane said that the type of mistakes that Arsenal made against Moscow will cost them in the latter stages of the tournament.
“Obviously they were dreadful for the first 75 minutes. I’m sick of saying it if you start a game slowly you’re in for a tough night,” Keane said on ITV’s post-match coverage.
“We’ve seen it over the last week or so with better teams than Arsenal starting slowly and heading for trouble. Arsenal did exactly the same. They got out of jail with a bit of quality from Welbeck, but yeah, the first 75 minutes, Arsenal were shocking. Really bad.
“But we’ve seen the best and worst of Arsenal. Then when they got the goal back you always felt they’d get a positive result but football is about setting yourself high standards, and I just thought Arsenal got out of jail tonight a little bit.
“Where was the intensity? You have got to play football with intensity. No one closing the ball down.
“The danger for the manager is that you’re looking at Arsenal and you’re probably thinking that you don’t know what you are going to get, and that is not a great trait to have as a team.
“But Arsenal certainly have the quality to hurt teams, but I think certainly in the semi-final they won’t get away with the mistakes they have been making with the teams left in the competition.”
Keane also singled out Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere for his performance after calling him the ‘most overrated player on the planet’ earlier this season.
Wilshere was a second-half substitute for Calum Chambers and Keane said that the England international is starting to drift in his career as he approaches this summer’s FIFA World Cup in Russia.
“You need to be fit if you’re going to be a footballer playing at the top level of the game. Every time I see him he’s either getting treatment or carrying a knock.
“Listen, maybe people think that I’ve been harsh on him but I just can’t see it. I’ve never been a big fan of his.
“I’ve always thought that for an attacking player he doesn’t get enough goals, doesn’t get enough assists and the guy’s career is drifiting.”
