Roy Keane was far from impressed with the manner of Arsenal’s win over Manchester United on Sunday.
The ex-Republic of Ireland international namedropped Premier League competitors Liverpool and Man City when analysing the Gunners’ opening competitive display in 2025/26.
Mikel Arteta’s men secured three points at Old Trafford, courtesy of Riccardo Calafiori’s first-half goal.
Roy Keane compares misfiring Arsenal to Liverpool
Arsenal may boast the most competent backline in the English top-flight, but they remain seriously unimpressive at the other end of the pitch.
Keane suggested that the North London-based outfit were ‘still coming up short’ due to their perceived unwillingness to attack the game.
“You wonder why Arsenal are still coming up short – it’s because they are still happy to sit back at 1-0,” the former Manchester United midfielder spoke on Sky Sports’ coverage.
“And then you think, is that the reason you drew so many games last year?
“You compare that to Man City and Liverpool. They are always looking to go on and get the second or the third. Even on a bad day they can score two or three goals.”
"Comparing them to a Man City or a Liverpool, they're always looking for the second goal!"
Roy Keane questions Arsenal's mentality once they go a goal in front… pic.twitter.com/mVUFb7quW3
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) August 17, 2025
In defence of the Gunners’ prior campaign, they did experience a wild number of injuries in their forward line. Bukayo Saka, for instance, missed 23 games (for club and country) in the 2024/25 season.
We can certainly also appreciate the fact that it’s still very early days in the new campaign. However, it’s never really an optimistic sign when a game is decided by a defender’s goal.
Man Utd outperformed Arsenal statistically
Ultimately, Arsenal fans won’t care a jot. They’ve come to Old Trafford, a traditionally difficult ground, and come away with the lion’s share of the points.
They should be a little worried, in our view, given that their opponents appeared to outplay them in Manchester.
United registered 22 shots (seven on target) to Arsenal’s nine (three on target) and recorded a higher xG (1.59 to the Gunners’ 1.05).
So, this isn’t just Roy Keane irritability at its finest (or worst), the Sky Sports pundit does actually have a point.
Liverpool’s defensive concerns can be partly explained
Look, Liverpool aren’t without blemishes either. We were far too easy to play through at times against Bournemouth, with Antoine Semenyo undoubtedly helped by our defensive deficiencies.
However, we can at least partly link this to structural issues springing up in the absence of Ryan Gravenberch.
We will be a much stronger and balanced outfit with the Dutchman back in the starting-XI. Whether that fixes the prominent issues we’ve been witnessing in pre-season remains to be seen.
One might reasonably expect our susceptibility to set-pieces won’t necessarily disappear overnight, but we’re certain Arne Slot can find a workable solution.
At least we’re not lacking for offensive intent and goals! If anything, despite Keane’s previously stated concerns about Trent Alexander-Arnold’s departure, we still look remarkably potent creatively.
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You have to give credit to Manchester United they played well, the attacking players they’ve bought will cause problems for teams this season. I thought Arsenal weren’t at their best, but they should a resilience I wish this Liverpool team had. If. Liverpool’s problems are not down to one player out of the team, gravenberch, it’s a collective problem, they way we are set up coached on the training ground. It’s naive and you won’t win anything being this open. There’s a balance between attacking and defending, and carragher was right, it is shocking defending. There are better teams waiting than Bournemouth to pick us off on the counter. Too many attacking midfielder’s that Ain’t good enough without the ball, the full backs out of position, we are the easiest team to score against and the set up without the ball isn’t right. The manager is watching it on the touchline and is oblivious to the mess.