'On their holidays' - Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane slams Newcastle United players after Arsenal defeat

Steve Bruce’s side missed the opportunity to go 12 points clear of the Premier League relegation zone and all-but guarantee survival with victory at St James’s Park.

Goals from Mohamed Elneny and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang capped off a routine win for Mikel Arteta’s Gunners, whose main focus is on Thursday’s Europa League semi-final tie with Villarreal.

And Keane was very critical of the Toon squad in his full-time analysis.

He told Sky Sports: “There was no intensity in their play – it was as if they were already on their holidays.

"Newcastle never turned up and that is going to be a problem for Bruce in the next few weeks to get them going again and say ‘listen, we still want to get a couple of victories’.

"What about climbing the table? What about chasing the teams in front of them? If you’re just worrying about the teams behind then you’ll stay in that area (of the table).

"Today was a good chance for Newcastle to get at this Arsenal team and we wonder every season why they’re struggling.

“It was a really poor mindset from the players.”

Former Newcastle boss Graeme Souness added: "They were so horribly off the pace today. Did you see any anger on the Newcastle players’ faces? We saw nothing from them.

"This is a team who could still mathematically still drop. They should have been playing as if it was the last game of the season that they needed to win it."

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