Roy Keane and Paul Merson have slammed one of Tottenham’s players before stating that Martin Odegaard will ‘absolutely destroy him’ in the north London derby.
Mikel Arteta’s side are looking to return to the top of the Premier League with victory over their rivals at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Spurs, on the other hand, are looking to close the gap on Aston Villa as they currently sit seven points behind fourth place in the league.
Ange Postecoglou made some surprising changes in his side as he chose to bench Richarlison for the visit of Arteta’s men.
Speaking on Sky Sports ahead of the game, Keane and Merson singled out a different Spurs player for criticism as they made a brutal prediction.
Ange Postecoglou’s team selection was questioned ahead of the north London derby
Sky pundits claimed that Martin Odegaard will ‘absolutely destroy’ one of the Spurs players
Roy Keane and Paul Merson heavily criticised the Spurs player ahead of kick-off
When asked why Postecoglou selected Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg for the London derby, former Spurs defender Michael Dawson backed the midfielder.
He said: ‘I think [he’s playing] to try and stop Odegaard. I see where they were two weeks ago, it was Bissouma and Bentancur. I’m surprised Pape Sarr didn’t come in for the legs.
‘Arsenal are going to have a lot of the ball and Sarr gets around a lot. But as Ange said, the experience Pierre has – controlling Odegaard, because for me he is huge in this match. He creates, dictates, you have to try and stop him.’
However, former Arsenal star Merson slammed the decision and stated that Odegaard will be licking his lips when coming up against the Dane.
’The lad who is playing now [Odegaard would rather face],’ he claimed. ‘Bissouma is a quicker player. Hojbjerg, you get away from him and you’re away. Bissouma and Sarr are quicker.
‘This lad will want to play – the problem is he thinks he’s a player. When they have the ball, he’ll start wanting to play it, but his natural reaction should be: “I’m in this team to stop him playing, so I’m just going to hook on him.”
Keane doubled down on Merson’s comments as he said: ’For all his experience, I don’t think Hojbjerg actually shows it. He gets cut out quite a bit.
‘His job is doing a job for the back four. They’ve got to protect their back four. For a defensive-minded midfielder, he gets caught out.
His job is getting people, helping his full-backs, because if the attackers don’t come back and do a job for them, it’s going to be a long afternoon for them.’
