‘His error this days is killings us slowly, Arteta needs to start benching Him if He wants something good for us’: Michael Owen criticised ONE Arsenal player despite lucky win against Sevilla last night
Michael Owen has criticised the £30m display in Arsenal’s win over Sevilla after he nearly netted a late own goal, while Martin Keown dubbed the discussion around the goalkeeper position a ‘pantomime’.
The Gunners secured three precious points in Seville courtesy of a 2-1 victory on Tuesday night that sees them bounce back from their defeat to Lens last time out in the Champions League and reclaim top spot in Group B.
Arsenal took the lead in first-half stoppage time when Gabriel Jesus produced a magical turn before releasing Gabriel Martinelli, who ran through on goal, rounded the keeper and rolled the ball into an empty net.
After setting up the first goal, man-of-the-match Jesus bagged the second with a wonderful solo goal as he curled a delicious effort into the far top corner.
Sevilla hit back not long after through Nemanja Gudelj’s header and Arsenal were forced to dig in for the latter stages of the match.
Although the Spanish side enjoyed plenty of possession and had the Gunners penned back inside their own 18-yard box at times, they created relatively few chances of note – though Raya did prompt one heart-in-mouth moment right at the death.
The Brentford loanee, who has displaced Aaron Ramsdale in the side, left his line to try and punch a cross but got it horribly wrong, with the ball ending up spinning off his fist and looping backwards.
His team-mates watched on with open mouths as the ball appeared to be heading into the goal, but it dipped just a few inches above the crossbar and nestled on the roof of the net to the relief of Raya and his defence.
After getting lobbed by Mykhaylo Mudryk in Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Chelsea, as well as making several mistakes with the ball, pressure is starting to heat up on Raya.
Owen feels he gave another sloppy display against Sevilla while Keown branded the goalkeeper situation a ‘pantomime’ during post-match punditry for TNT Sports, with both unable to resist a chuckle when re-watching the incident.
Asked if his latest gaffe was a particularly bad one, Owen replied: ‘Yeah. Listen, all eyes are on Raya at the moment. If you’re keeping clean sheets all the time no-one says anything.
