Paul Scholes has had some fun on social media at Martin Keown's expense after the former Arsenal defender referred to current Gunners chief Mikel Arteta as "boss".
BT Sport pundit Keown was on duty for Wednesday night's crunch Premier League title decider between the Gunners and Manchester City, which was won at a canter by the reigning champions.
A brilliant brace from Kevin de Bruyne and goals from John Stones and Erling Haaland were enough to break Arsenal's resistance despite a late consolation from Rob Holding. However, it was Keown's pre-match comments, rather than the action, that caught Scholes' eye.
In the build-up to the big match, Arteta was welcomed by the BT Sport panel, including Keown, who said: “Boss, you look incredibly relaxed this evening” - even though he never played under the Spaniard.
And it didn't take long for Scholes, who is also a regular pundit on BT, to poke fun of his former Premier League rival. In a post on his Instagram story, the Manchester United icon quipped: “Did Martin Keown just call Arteta boss…”, complete with a load of laughing emojis.
Unfortunately for Keown and Arsenal, the rest of the evening proved to be no laughing matter as Manchester City took control of the title race with a comprehensive victory.
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Arsenal struggled to lay a glove on the champions and never looked like staging any sort of fightback after falling behind in the seventh minute. And Keown, who was part of the 'Arsenal Invincibles' who won the title back in 2004, admitted that he expected more from his former side after the match.
“Of course [he expected more]. Honestly, it’s the acid test when you play Man City now. Haaland and de Bruyne, they’re at another level now, when those big games come around the players have really performed at a higher level and the whole stadium is used to winning things here now.
“City and Arsenal, you could see a huge gap between the two clubs and Arsenal are probably about 10 years behind them. But, Arsenal are on the way back. Tonight was extremely disappointing, long balls into the Arsenal back line, that’s 11 goals conceded in the last four games and the title opportunity has slipped away because they haven’t been able to defend well enough.”
Despite falling to defeat at the Etihad, Arsenal are still two points ahead of Manchester City in the Premier League rankings. City still have two games in hand on their rivals, however, their Champions League campaign is also alive and kicking which could come into play. They face Real Madrid in the first leg of their mouthwatering semi-final tie next month.
