Keown Won't Tempt Fate With Arsenal Trophy Talk After Mansfield Scare

Martin Keown isn't about to get ahead of himself when it comes to Arsenal's silverware prospects, especially after watching his old club come perilously close to a banana skin against League One Mansfield in the FA Cup.

The Gunners sit atop the Premier League table, have booked their spot in the League Cup final, secured Champions League knockout football, and progressed past the fifth round of the Cup. Four competitions still in play. Yet Keown, having witnessed the drama unfold, is taking a measured approach to the quadruple question.

Arsenal's trip to Field Mill on Saturday proved trickier than expected. They broke the deadlock before half-time, only for the home side to restore parity early in the second half. For more than a quarter of an hour, the scoreline remained locked level—enough to set pulses racing in the away dugout. Eze restored Arsenal's lead in the 66th minute, and they held firm for a 2-1 victory, but the scare was real.

When pushed on how many trophies the club might claim, Keown wasn't having it. "If you start talking about how many you're going to win, it's going to sound arrogant," he explained. "They're in four competitions and they nearly went out today, it was that close. Mansfield gave them a real scare. It's just game to game and it's been expensive with the injuries, so the manager will have to lick their wounds a bit."

The arithmetic is straightforward enough: Arsenal hold a seven-point lead in the league, though Manchester City have a game in hand. The League Cup showdown with second-placed City in the coming weeks looms large—lose that, and the quadruple dream effectively ends before it really began. In Europe, they face Bayer Leverkusen in the last 16, a matchup where they'll be fancied to progress.

Under Mikel Arteta's stewardship, Arsenal have captured just one major honour: the FA Cup back in 2019/20. Whether this season finally brings multiple trophies to the Emirates remains the burning question.