{"id":1668,"date":"2026-05-31T15:08:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T15:08:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/?p=1668"},"modified":"2026-05-31T15:08:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T15:08:41","slug":"keown-tells-arteta-to-replace-two-stars-after-champions-league-loss-to-psg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/?p=1668","title":{"rendered":"Keown tells Arteta to replace two stars after Champions League loss to PSG"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div><!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<p>Arsenal legend Martin Keown has urged Mikel Arteta and sporting director Andrea Berta to replace two players at the Emirates Stadium over the summer.<\/p>\n<p>The Gunners lost 4-3 on penalties to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final on Saturday evening after an Ousmane Dembele penalty cancelled out Kai Havertz\u2019s opener for Arsenal in normal time.<\/p>\n<p>Eberechi Eze and Gabriel Magalhaes missed their spot-kicks as <strong>Arsenal<\/strong> were forced to wait at least another year to attempt to win their first Champions League title.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal will have to brush themselves down quickly for their Premier League title parade through the streets of north London on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>The Gunners hierarchy are expected to back Arteta once again in the summer transfer market after spending over \u00a3250m last year.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal have depth in most areas but Keown has picked out two key positions they should improve heading into next season.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ: 16 Conclusions from Arsenal losing the Champions League final: Arteta, Saka, Odegaard, Gabriel<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Havertz, who has struggled with availability because of injury this season, started and scored in the place of Viktor Gyokeres, who was left on the bench against PSG.<\/p>\n<p>And when asked which areas of the squad Arsenal should look to strengthen, Keown told <em>TNT Sports<\/em>: \u201cThey may look again at the striker.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKai Havertz played 90 minutes tonight but it\u2019s only the second full game he\u2019s finished in 18 months.<\/p>\n<p><smartframe-embed customer-id=\"598d587f82f0613dc60f89d2daf94a61\" image-id=\"brfcM0k6j3yw\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 100%;\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith Viktor Gyokeres, it was a difficult night for him, so that could be an area Arsenal look at. Maybe left-wing as well. Mikel Arteta will strengthen, there\u2019s no doubt about that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Former Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard chipped in: \u201cI think they have to. This was Arsenal\u2019s 63rd game of the season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou need more than one top striker, you might even need more than two. You need to keep refreshing, you fix the roof when the sun\u2019s shining.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ: Arteta drops stunning Gabriel revelation as Rice sends message to Arsenal penalty missers<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cArsenal are in a magnificent place, a magnificent place. But the level and the amount of games means you have to keep adding to it and moving players on who have hit their ceiling or look like they\u2019re in decline.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut they\u2019re not far away from being a dominant team, I just think they need a few more game-changers at the top of the pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Rice: We wouldn\u2019t have won PL title without Eze, Gabriel<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice, who scored his spot-kick, felt a lot of sympathy for Eze and Gabriel after they missed their attempts in the penalty shoot-out.<\/p>\n<p>Rice said on TNT Sports: \u201cTo miss a penalty in a Champions League final, obviously it\u2019s not nice. But we love them and we\u2019re with them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt happens in football. They\u2019re not going to be the last players to miss penalties in finals. Everyone has missed a penalty and without those two this season we wouldn\u2019t have won the Premier League, that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGabriel, I\u2019ve run out of words for him as a person and as a player. Eze has scored some crucial goals for us this season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt happens. It\u2019s football and it\u2019s cruel. We take the positives and keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ: Mikel Arteta thinks Arsenal were robbed in Champions League final<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!-- Article End --><\/div>\n<p><script>\n        !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\n        {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n        n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};\n        if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';\n        n.queue=();t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n        t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)(0);\n        s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script',\n        'https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n        fbq('init', '1399787394855675');\n        fbq('track', 'PageView');\n    <\/script><script>\n        !function(e,n,t){var o=e.getElementsByTagName(n)(0);e.getElementById\n    <\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arsenal legend Martin Keown has urged Mikel Arteta and sporting director Andrea Berta to replace two players at the Emirates Stadium over the summer. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}