Keown slams one ‘lazy’ Chelsea player in their defeat to London rivals Arsenal

Joe Williams
Martin Keown talks about Chelsea

Arsenal legend Martin Keown has criticised one Chelsea player for swinging a “lazy leg” at the ball in the build-up to the Gunners’ goal in their 1-0 loss.

Gabriel Magalhaes scored the only goal of the game as Arsenal won 1-0 to reclaim top spot in the Premier League table from Manchester City, who beat Fulham 2-1 on Saturday.

Chelsea forward Kai Havertz failed to clear Bukayo Saka’s corner on 63 minutes with the ball flying past Thiago Silva and Edouard Mendy before Arsenal centre-back Gabriel put it in the net.

Scott Parker and Keown both blamed Havertz for not clearing his lines and allowing the ball to drift past him.

Former Fulham manager Parker said on BT Sport: “You’re always massively disappointed when you concede from a set-piece.

“Arsenal are certainly good at scoring set-piece goals and that’s something we prepped for [before Fulham’s 2-1 defeat at the Emirates in August].

“I don’t know why Havertz has gone so far forward before the corner. If he goes deeper he can come on to it, instead he starts high and then starts running back and then he’s got a lot to deal with.”

Keown added: “Kai Havertz has got to do better there. He swings a lazy leg at that.”

Speaking on BBC Five Live, former Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer thinks Chelsea “looked disorganised” for the majority of the match against Arsenal.

Schwarzer said: “Arsenal have been the better side, certainly in this second half. They have dominated for large parts of it. Chelsea have looked disorganised, they haven’t really had a chance to get in the game. Aubameyang has come off, they really have struggled.

“Broja up front has struggled to keep hold of the ball, he’s been off side a few times they’re have really struggled to get going but a lot of that is down to the fact that Arsenal put a lot of pressure on them and are certainly high on confidence.”

BT Sport pundit Jermaine Jenas highlighted Arsenal forward Gabriel Jesus as the man who caused Chelsea all sorts of problems on Sunday but thought the Brazilian should’ve done better with a sitter in the first half.

Jenas said: “He has to score. The bit of play in midfield was electric, and this left-hand side of Arsenal has been causing Chelsea problems all day.

“They don’t sort it out, they still manage to get Martinelli in all this space. Gabriel Jesus, unmarked, back post, he’s got to do better than that.

“He’s playing well, even in today’s game he’s causing problems, his movement’s great.

“He’s got a number nine on his back, you want him to put the ball in the back of the net and he can do it, he had a great start to the season, he’s just fallen out of that rhythm.

“And maybe that’s the thing with Brazil, it could be what they’re looking at as well, he’s really started this game well.”

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