Say what you like about Roy Keane, but he does know his football and his latest Arsenal comments prove as much.
The Gunners have exited the FA Cup, losing 1-0 away to Manchester City.
Bizarrely, this is the first time Arsenal have played their Premier League title rivals this season.
And it’s one-nil to master over apprentice as Pep Guardiola’s side edged out an outfit managed by Mikel Arteta.
Despite this being such a big game, the Arsenal manager made an array of changes to his starting XI.
Pep, on the other hand, fielded his heavy hitters – Ilkay Gundogan, Kevin de Bruyne and, of course, Erling Haaland.
Speaking before the game, Keane claimed that Arteta’s team selection would ultimately undermine Arsenal – and given the result, well he got it spot on.
He told ITV Sport: “The priority for Arsenal – because they’ve had such a great start – is of course the league. But I just think to make so many changes defensively, people talking about the priorities, but it’s still January. They’ve got no midweek game coming up. Huge risk and I’m pretty sure it will backfire on him.”
You have to keep in mind the context and the North Londoners, despite resting some big names, did probably have a better first half than the Citizens.
Leandro Trossard, in particular, was a major headache for Rico Henry down the left-hand side, as spotted by Clinton Morrison for BBC Sport via HITC Sport.
But in the end, it was probably the fair result and it makes you wonder if Arsenal still would’ve lost had Arteta named his strongest-available XI.
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