Martin Keown criticises ‘nervy’ Arsenal star after win over Brighton | Football

Martin Keown hailed ‘absolutely immense’ Gabriel after Arsenal’s win over Brighton but was more critical of ‘nervy’ Declan Rice.

Arsenal moved seven points clear at the top of the Premier League with a 1-0 win at Brighton on Wednesday night.

The Gunners took the lead on nine minutes through Bukayo Saka’s deflected strike and produced another superb defensive display to frustrate Brighton.

It turned out to be a brilliant evening for Arsenal who not only picked up another crucial win but saw title rivals Manchester City drop points at home to Nottingham Forest.

Keown says those two results have made Arsenal ‘huge favourites’ to win their first Premier League title in 22 years.

‘It’s a massively significant night in the title race,’ Keown said on TNT Sports. ‘Looking at that now, Arsenal have become huge favourites.

‘But there’s hardly anything in it. Every game is really tough, it’s going to go right to the wire. Don’t get carried away.

‘That was a great step in the right direction but it’s only one game. It can quickly disappear so you focus on the next match.’

Arsenal were without influential defender William Saliba at Brighton but a superb performance from Gabriel helped the Gunners keep another clean sheet.

Keown described Gabriel as ‘absolutely immense’ and also praised Mikel Arteta’s second-half substitutes Kai Havertz and Riccardo Calafiori.

The Gunners legend was less praiseworthy of Declan Rice, arguably Arsenal’s best player this season, and said it was an uncharacteristically ‘nervy’ display from the England midfielder.

‘It was tortuous to watch at times but Gabriel’s performance at the back was absolutely immense,’ Keown added.

‘It was tense but you’ve got to keep going, Havertz came off the bench and gave a touch of class to the team. Calafiori as well gave Arsenal better balance in the second half.

‘It was bit nervy at times from Declan Rice but boy that is an unbelievable result for Arsenal.’

The Premier League leaders only had two shots on target against Brighton and just over 40% possession.

Ex-England goalkeeper Rob Green said Arsenal ‘played badly’ but ‘won’t care’ as they took another step towards Premier League glory.

‘Arsenal can keep playing badly and winning all they like,’ he said on BBC Radio 5 Live. ‘It’s the others that are faltering.

‘Manchester City are faltering. And you just look at this Arsenal side and how they go about winning games, they manage to just grind out results and that’s all they’ve done tonight.

‘They’ve had a stroke of good fortune. There’s not one player that can turn around and say they had a good game, except maybe Hincapie and maybe one or two others defensively. They don’t care, they won.’

While Arsenal move seven points clear at the top of the Premier League, Brighton drop one place to 12th.

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