Laura Woods has laid into Richard Keys and Andy Gray after the beIN SPORTS pundits criticised Arsenal for “over-celebrating” their victory against Fulham.
The Gunners came from behind to beat Fulham 2-1 at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday night and maintain their perfect start to the Premier League season. Aleksandar Mitrovic gave the away side the lead when he pounced on a mistake by Gabriel Magalhaes, but Arsenal showed great spirit to fight back.
Martin Odegaard equalised just eight minutes later with a deflected effort from the edge of the box before Gabriel made up for his earlier mistake by tucking in from a corner after Bernd Leno fumbled a corner. The match was notable for the raucous atmosphere, which turned jubilant at the final whistle, with fans, players and coaching staff all celebrating their win.
The scenes did not go down well with Keys and Gray, who accused Arteta and Arsenal’s players of getting ahead of themselves after reclaiming top spot in the Premier League. “It’s Fulham, and they trailed for a time,” Keys began on beIN SPORTS. “Yeah, well played, you came back to win it and they keep their 100 per cent record intact. But they haven’t won the title tonight. They’ve won a London derby… Let’s not get too carried away. We’re four games into the season.”
Gray then added: “I get the fans getting over excited. If you want me to be blunt about Arsenal, I like what I see, right? But they’ve beaten Palace, Leicester, Bournemouth and Fulham. It’s not a who’s who of big teams.
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“This is over hype. It’s Fulham. This is a league game. If this was the semi-final of the cup somewhere and you’d won, then I get that. Maybe this is what he (Arteta) wants to instil here, I don’t know. I would say it’s dangerous because you’re going to have plenty of downs, that’s for sure.”
But the former Sky Sports’ duo’s viewpoint was attacked by fellow broadcaster Woods. “Genuinely…what is the point of football if you can’t enjoy it in the moment?” she wrote in a quote-tweet to the clip. “It’s just a happy team with happy fans who will probably go out tonight & get s*** faced. That’s the point. Better not celebrate a goal in case you lose the game either."
Arteta certainly did not feel like his team and supporters had over reacted. Asked in his post-match press conference about the connection with the supporters, he replied: “I don’t know any top teams or winning teams that don’t have that connection with the club and with the supporters. I just had a person who I love that I haven't seen for a while, it’s the first time he’s been at the stadium for two years and he says it’s the best he’s seen ever since he was at Highbury.”
The Gunners will welcome Aston Villa to the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday before travelling to Old Trafford to face Manchester United next weekend.
