Man Utd legend slammed for Arsenal assessment and Mikel Arteta criticism - 'deranged'

Arsenal legend Martin Keown has slammed Pete Schmeichel's assessment of Arsenal after the Gunners' defeat to Liverpool.

Mikel Arteta's side lost 1-0 at the Premier League champions before the international break to suffer their first defeat of the season. Arsenal and Arteta were heavily criticised in some quarters after the result - mainly due to their defensive approach at Anfield.

One such critic was former goalkeeper Schmeichel, who did not hold back in his criticism of Arteta's men. The Dane even went as far as to state that he was hoping for a Liverpool win despite his association with the Reds' arch-rivals, Manchester United.

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Ripping into Arsenal after their loss in Merseyside, the Viaplay pundit said: "I have never in my life, ever, wanted a team to win a game of football more than Liverpooltoday.

"Arsenal bring an ugly brand of football to our game. Arteta... let your team play football! Let them loose, let them be free!

"I am absolutely convinced that if Arteta does this, they will win more games."

And ex-Gunners defender Keown has hit back at Schmeichel's criticism - going as far as to call the former keeper's assesment as 'deranged'.

"We want more. Arsenal I feel now are at the stage where it’s a mentality change," he toldtalkSPORT.

"They need to change gear, they’ve really got to go after it. You’ve got to have the eye of the tiger to really go and win these games. Looking back, I hope we don’t regret it, but it’s too early in the season to write Arsenal off.

"I don’t know if it’s been calm in the media, I’ve listened to some people, sometimes these ex-players like Peter Schmeichel has said that Arsenal bring something 'ugly' to the Premier League. I think that’s deranged, what's he talking about."

He added: "Was it ugly when they changed the back-pass rule in 1992 because it was him [Schmeichel] that was one of the advocates of that? Everyone kept passing it back to him, that was ugly as well. But look, Arsenal are a long way down the line to being successful.

"We can compare clubs, Arsenal and Manchester United, maybe I'm rising to the bait... but I think Arsenal look good right now, it’s not lucky Arsenal anymore, by the way, with all these injuries.

"That will clear up and they’ve now got a squad to go the distance, but Liverpool are still ahead."