Roy Keane says Arsenal 'only have two good players' and describes Barcelona's Champions League showing as 'abysmal'

The inflammatory former Man Utd captain spared no prisoners in his European round-up

Keane did not hold back in his assessment of the two matches (Getty Images)

Roy Keane has had his say on Barcelona and Arsenal’s heavy European defeats this week, claiming that the Gunners “only had two decent players” on the pitch against Bayern Munich, before slamming Barca’s performance against PSG on Tuesday night as “abysmal”.

Arsenal are attempting to qualify for the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time since 2010, but lost 5-1 in a dismal performance which means they are all but certain to exit in the Round of 16 stage for a seventh successive season.

The Gunners scored a precious away goal through Alexis Sanchez’s rebounded penalty to make the score 1-1 at half-time, but second-half goals from Robert Lewandowski, Thiago Alcántara and Thomas Müller saw Arsenal collapse to an embarrassing defeat.

Not that Keane was overly surprised.

"Did you think they'd go to Bayern Munich and get a result?” he asked while analysing the game.

"We've said it before, though. Lack of leaders, lack of characters, hunger, desire. But I have to say, tonight at this level, this stage of the competition, they're just not good enough.

"So there's no point in being too critical of them, because they're not good enough.

"They've only got two decent players. The rest, average."

Keane also took a swipe at Kieran Gibbs, who briefly stood in as captain as Arsenal chased the game late on. "When I see Gibbs with the captain's armband on at the end of the game, you're in trouble," Keane added.

Arsenal were not the only team to invoke Keane’s ire, with the Irishman also finding the time to savage Barcelona’s performance in their miserable 4-0 defeat in Paris.

Lionel Messi was anonymous as PSG ran Barca ragged (AFP/Getty Images)

“I couldn't believe what I was watching. Obviously the tie is over now at this stage,” Keane said.

“Fair enough we look at Barcelona sometimes and think they are poor defensively but in terms of going forward and their possession they were abysmal, it was as if they've never played at that level before.”