Martin Keown says Arsenal are ‘on the beach’ amid warm-weather training in Dubai

Arsenal legend Martin Keown says his old club are ‘on the beach’ amid their warm-weather training trip to Dubai – but stresses it’s a good thing.

The football idiom ‘on the beach‘ is usually used to refer to a team that has let their standards drop – or isn’t performing to the best of their abilities – but Keown appears to have used it to suggest Arsenal are enjoying a rest.

Arsenal recently headed to Dubai for a warm-weather training trip after losing to Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup semi-finals.

Mikel Arteta’s side had time to fly out to the United Arab Emirates because they were not playing in the FA Cup fourth round on the weekend just gone.

The Gunners lost to Manchester United in the third round last month, which gave them a 10-day gap between matches on February 5 and February 15.

Arsenal’s Premier League title rivals Liverpool, meanwhile, were in FA Cup action this weekend as they suffered a shock elimination to Plymouth.

‘Let’s let Plymouth have their moment in the sun,’ Keown told talkSPORT on Monday. ‘To beat the best team in Europe…’

Football pundit Keown was then interrupted by host Simon Jordan who chimed in to ask: ‘It wasn’t their first team was it?’

Keown added: ‘No, but Plymouth played what was against them. Whatever team Liverpool put out, that is still a monumental result.’

Jordan responded: ‘Of course, had Plymouth beaten Arsenal, you’d be saying it was only Arsenal’s second string.’

Keown then said: ‘Arsenal are on the beach this time around. Maybe that’ll help them, actually, going forward.’

Gunners icon Keown later added that Arsenal’s early FA Cup exit may have been a ‘blessing’, with the team still fighting for the Premier League title.

‘With the amount of games other teams are having to play… we’ve said that Arsenal are on a beach somewhere,’ Keown said. ‘It may have been a blessing.

‘Going into the [Plymouth] game, Liverpool had played 36 matches. That was more than Plymouth, which is unusual as the lower-league teams are normally playing every two or three days.

‘And we’re year-on-year now of players coming from World Cups, Euros, Covid… we are getting an awful lot of injuries. Liverpool have now got injuries. [Joe] Gomez yesterday… that was a sucker-punch for them.’

Meanwhile, Arsenal’s next match comes on Saturday as they face a trip to Leicester City in the Premier League.

‘The squad have been continuing the hard work over the weekend on the NAS Sports Complex training pitches in Dubai,’ Arsenal posted on their website on Monday.

‘Academy youngsters like Max Dowman have been learning more about the first-team environment, taking all the advice on board from Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly.

‘Mohamed Elneny stopped by to catch up with his old teammates too.’