Martin Keown talks about Gabriel Martinelli and the grit shown by Arsenal

Legendary players Martin Keown and Rio Ferdinand hailed the gritty behaviour of Arsenal and Mikel Arteta against Chelsea and believed that Arsenal have still chance to qualify for the Champions League. The 10-men Arsenal played against the super-charged Chelsea and earned a rightful draw against Frank Lampard’s side.

David Luiz was sent off before the half an hour mark which gave the Blues to lead by half time. Jorginho scored from the penalty in the first half. However, Martinelli equalized before Cesar Azplicueta scored the second goal for Chelsea. However, the drama wasn’t over yet and Arsenal equalized in the 87th minute.

Talking about the performance of Gabriel Martinelli and Arsenal’s performance, Martin Keown said;

“You’re watching that team tonight, and you’re seeing the future out there,”  “Martinelli – his goal. The passion, the spirit. We’ve been waiting for this for a long time.

“Martinelli that is some performance tonight, [Buyako] Saka, and even [Granit] Xhaka when he goes to central defence, that’s as good as I’ve seen him play.

“They showed real character. For most of that game they were down to 10 men.”

And Ferdinand feels the grit and determination showed by the Arsenal players stemmed from their manager, and the result could prove a catalyst for their season.

Ferdinand opined;

I think Arteta shouted and called for a shift in mentality,” 

We’ve spoke about it before, they’ve been renowned for having a group of people with fragile mentalities.

“This could be a turning point, the way they’ve come back in terms of going a goal down, down to 10 men, being in disarray for a while, gaining composure, and chewing out a result like this.

“The way they done it, that demands character, that demands spirit, that demands a mentality, and then added to that quality in vital moments. They’ve showed that in abundance today.”