Martin Keown accused Simon Jordan of double standards following Liverpool’s 3-0 defeat to Atalanta at Anfield on Thursday night.
The Reds face an uphill task in Italy for the second leg of their Europa League quarter-final tie next week as they bid to keep their hopes of glory alive.
The result came as a huge surprise considering Liverpool were the bookies favourites to lift the trophy in Dublin next month.
Former Arsenal defender Keown told talkSPORT the defeat is a sign that some players are affected by the emotion of the title race and manager Jurgen Klopp’s impending exit.
Jordan disagreed with Keown’s assumption and fired back with a dig at Arsenal’s failure to beat Bayern Munich in Tuesday’s Champions League clash.
“I’m not sure the emotion is overtaking them,” Jordan told Keown in the talkSPORT studio. “I think that’s an outside noise rather than an inside noise.
“It’s ironic, given that Arsenal’s performance on Tuesday was fraught with emotion that ultimately cost them the opportunity to beat what is not a particularly great Bayern Munich side.
“So emotion is part of football. It’s how you channel it.”
Jordan was openly critical of Arsenal’s failure to land last season’s Premier League title after leading the table for most of the campaign.
The ex-Crystal Palace owner previously claimed the Gunners’ ‘bottled’ the title race that eventually saw Manchester City leapfrog Mikel Arteta’s side before claiming a third-consecutive crown.
Aiming to draw comparisons between Arsenal’s failed title bid and a recent drop off in performance by Klopp’s side, Keown reminded Jordan of his words.
“Are you saying Liverpool have bottled it then?,” asked the ex-Gunner.
“No, I think they’ve had a bad performance,” Jordan replied.
“You’d say that about Arsenal though, wouldn’t you?,” Keown fired back.
Jordan then explained why the two situations are different, before aiming another dig at the north London side.
“Liverpool haven’t bottled anything because they are still in the competition’s they’re in,” Jordan explained.
“I don’t think Liverpool have bottled anything right now. Arsenal clearly bottled it last season because they were on top of the league, but the manner in which they lost the league was by losing games and drawing games on a run of fixtures in the business end of the season to teams they should never have dropped points to.”
He continued: “Liverpool had one bad game, we’ll see if they bounce back from it. Arsenal bottled it last year, they’re [Liverpool] not bottling it this year, they’re my favourites to win the league.
“When you talk about emotion, the emotion that Arsenal showed was emotional immaturity in the manner of how they handled the game against Bayern Munich by letting them back into it when they had control.”
News Summary:
- Martin Keown calls out Simon Jordan for double standards over Liverpool and Arsenal after pundit blasts ‘immature’ Gunners
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