Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has defended Erling Haaland against criticism following a damning assessment of his performance versus Arsenal by Roy Keane.

The Sky Sports pundit had accused the Norwegian of being a “League Two player” after he struggled to make an impact against the Gunners but Guardiola has hit back, stating that Keane is in no position to criticise the striker:

“I am not agreeing with him. It’s like I said: ‘He’s a manager for the second or third league – I don’t think so. He’s the best striker in the world and helped us to win what we won last season, and the reason why we don’t create many chances is not because of Erling. We played an exceptional game against Arsenal.”

“I reviewed it – we just missed more people in the final third, maybe for the quality and different skills we have. I am surprised it [the criticism] has come from former players. From journalists I understand, because they have never been on the pitch.”

Haaland’s scoring record backs up Guardiola’s remarks

There is no disputing the fact that the 23-year-old had a below-par game at the weekend. He struggled to get the better of Arsenal centre-back pairing William Saliba and Gabriel.

However, some are too quick to forget the remarkable impact that Haaland has had since moving to England. Breaking the Premier League goalscoring record in his first season was an astonishing feat and he hasn’t been too bad this campaign either, having hit the back of the net 29 times.

City struggled to give the forward service

As Guardiola mentions, the main issue for Haaland is that he didn’t get a lot of support from those around him. City didn’t get numbers into the final third and it meant the forward was feeding off scraps.

It was very uncharacteristic of the Premier League champions, especially at the Etihad where they are usually able to carve out chances on a regular basis.