Roy Keane takes cheeky jab at England star to crack up Ian Wright on ITV | Football | Sport
Former Manchester United star Roy Keane aimed a cheeky dig at Myles Lewis-Skelly and Arsenal during the Three Lions’ clash with Latvia on Monday night to leave Ian Wright in hysterics.
Thomas Tuchel’s side cruised to a 3-0 victory at Wembley Stadium, with Reece James whipping a sensational free-kick into the top corner to open his account on the international stage before Harry Kane and Eberechi Eze put the game to bed in the second half from close range.
James’ free-kick will certainly be the main takeaway from the match given that Krisjanis Zviedris had no chance of keeping the Chelsea skipper’s effort out. After the free-kick was awarded in the 38th minute, the defender urged Kane and Marcus Rashford to leave the set-piece to him, and the duo – who have both previously taken efforts from those sorts of areas – both surprisingly obliged.
However, it wasn’t just the free-kick taker which raised eyebrows. Questions have been raised about whether England were fortunate to have been awarded the free kick in the first place. After getting the ball caught under his feet, Lewis-Skelly slightly backed into the onrushing Latvia star Vladislavs Gutkovskis before going down.
Referee Alejandro Hernandez felt there was enough contact to blow his whistle, but Keane remained unconvinced and felt the versatile Arsenal defender may have been fortunate to have been awarded the foul.
Speaking on ITV, the former midfielder said: “It was touch and go. I thought they were clever winning the free kick. If you look at it here, I think they’re (Latvia) slightly unlucky, take nothing away from the free kick. Lewis-Skelly here, he’s obviously learned that at Arsenal over the years.”
The comment drew a laugh from former Gunners star Wright, who responded: “You can see what he’s trying to do, he’s trying to get his touch to go in front of him but it went behind him.” Keane then replied: “He was smart with it, wasn’t he? He was clever.”
Tuchel will certainly be pleased with how Lewis-Skelly has performed over the course of the two international matches, with the teenager showing a willingness to invert and create overloads when required, but also support Rashford with overlapping runs.
With Luke Shaw struggling with injuries and Ben Chilwell failing to impress on loan at Crystal Palace, the 18-year-old will be hoping to make the left-back spot his own for the Three Lions going forward, though Newcastle duo Tino Livramento and Lewis Hall will both be eyeing that position too.
