Arsenal icon Martin Keown has previously joked about upsetting royalty following last weekend's Premier League action
19:57, 10 Dec 2025Updated 20:24, 10 Dec 2025
Former Arsenal defender Martin Keown has defended his decision to name Martin Odegaard his Player of the Match during the Gunners' 2-1 defeat to Aston Villa. The TNT Sports commentator named Odegaard as his standout performer before Emi Buendia's dramatic late winner, much to Prince William's bemusement.
After the late win for Unai Emery's team, the future King, who is famously a big Villa fan, questioned Keown's decision on social media. "Surely Emi Buendia for Man of the Match? ! An incredible game! UTV [Up the Villa]," posted The Prince of Wales on X, formerly Twitter.
Keown responded by saying: "I'm really sorry that I've upset royalty, but I actually gave it out - can you believe it? - in the 89th minute. I was a bit early." He added: "We can unofficially change it. I don't want to be court-martialled."
Now, four days after the exchange, Keown has doubled down on his verdict. When asked about Prince William's response to his take before Arsenal's match with Club Brugge, Keown jokingly said on TNT Sports: "Well, I think my judgment stacks up, particularly when Buendia was only on the pitch for what, seven minutes in total. I think two minutes after he came on, I gave my man of the match.
"I hope he's watching tonight and tuning into some Champions League, and maybe Aston Villa can be in this competition again next season. I sincerely hope that happens. Very diplomatic."
TNT Sports' Adam Summeron joked to Keown prior to Arsenal's Champions League game on Wednesday night: "You'll be glad to know you haven't got to pick a man of the match tonight."
Keown then replied: "Oh good, there was a lot of controversy around that."
Villa's win was their ninth consecutive home victory and their ninth from their last 10 Premier League games. Their last defeat in the league came against reigning champions Liverpool.
Unai Emery's men will be aiming to keep up their good form when they take on FC Basel in the Europa League on Thursday night. Their title ambitions will be tested against West Ham United on Sunday.
Arsenal's defeat against Villa was just their second away from the Emirates Stadium in 21 games. The other one came against Liverpool at the start of the season.
Speaking after his side's defeat at Villa Park, Arteta said: "Obviously we are extremely disappointed with the way we lost the game, but first of all I want to congratulate Villa because they are a really good side, and they are really good at what they do.
"We had some difficulties in the first half, especially with some very unusual giveaways that we have given after regaining the ball, which is a really dangerous moment against them. But apart from the Watkins situation, which is a foul, I don't recall anything apart from the goal.
"The second half, we started really well, much more positive. We generated chances, scored the goal, and my feeling was that we were going to go on and win the game. We could have lost it before, again with two very dangerous individual giveaways, and we didn't.
"We had two chances to score, the last one with the ball across to Declan and we didn't capitalise on that. The next goal kick [went] long, it goes there, second ball, we put it away for a throw-in, they played fast, a lot of chaos in the box and they managed to put the ball in the top corner, which is the quality of this league, so that's the summary."
Arsenal, meanwhile, are currently top of the Champions League table and can effectively secure their automatic qualification to the knockout rounds with another win in Belgium.
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