Martin Keown Criticizes Rob Holding After Arsenal Loss to Erling Haaland

Martin Keown believes Rob Holding lost his battle with Erling Haaland from “the very first challenge” in Manchester City’s 4-1 win over Arsenal. The Gunners centre-half was tasked with filling the void left by William Saliba, but was given a torrid evening by Haaland and Kevin de Bruyne, who scored twice on the night. Haaland superbly held the ball up before freeing the Belgian for City’s opener, and Keown said Holding should have taken a booking in order to impose himself against the striker. He said: “If I was playing, Haaland would be all I was thinking about. Holding lost that battle. The very first challenge, that’s where they concede the first goal. You’ve got to put your marker down, you’ve got to be physical, maybe take a booking. But Haaland is just strutting around that pitch and it looked really easy at times. That’s something these young Arsenal defenders are going to have to learn, and learn quickly.” Mikel Arteta pinpointed the first 30 minutes as a key period in the game where his side “didn’t do the basics”, and conceded the hosts were by far the better side on the night. He said: “The analysis is clear: the better team won the game. They were probably at their best, especially in the first half, and we were nowhere near our level. When that happens, the gap becomes too big and in the first 30 minutes we didn’t do all the basic things that you have to do against an exceptional team, in terms of competing, winning duels and understanding what the game requires. We got punished and we could have been punished even more.”