Ex-Arsenal defender Martin Keown has praised Gunners boss Mikel Arteta for fielding a number of technically gifted players in the 4-2 win over Leeds on Sunday.

The BBC pundit says he was very impressed by how his former club outplayed Marcelo Bielsa’s side, whilst also being disciplined with their pressing and forcing their opponents into errors. He claims it is something he hasn’t seen since Arsene Wenger was in charge:

“Sunday’s selection by Mikel Arteta was a return to that philosophy. I haven’t seen an Arsenal side packed with so many technical players since the Wenger era. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will grab the headlines for his hat-trick but he was getting plenty of chances created for him.”

“Emile Smith Rowe, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Dani Ceballos – they can all create and there was a good message to press high collectively. Arsenal made Leeds look quite ordinary for most of this match because of that.”

Arteta will be delighted with how his team went about their task at the weekend. The first 60 minutes, in particular, were very impressive and he will be keen to see his side replicate that display going forwards.

Whether we’ll see so many creative players on the pitch when they take on Benfica and Manchester City later this week, we shall have to wait and see, but they will head into those two fixtures with a lot of confidence following Sunday’s performance.