Martin Keown joked about upsetting royalty after Prince William questioned his Player of the Match choice following Aston Villa’s 2-1 win over Arsenal
Martin Keown has admitted he may have “upset” royalty after selecting his Player of the Match during Aston Villa’s 2-1 victory over Arsenal.
The former defender had already named Martin Odegaard as his standout performer before Emi Buendia’s dramatic late winner in front of the Holte End.
However, after Buendia fired past David Raya with virtually the final touch of the match, HRH Prince William 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, who represented both Arsenal and Villa during his playing career, responded with good humour: “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.”
“We can unofficially change it. I don’t want to be court-martialled,” he added.
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The triumph marked Villa’s ninth consecutive home victory, and also the ninth win from their last 10 Premier League fixtures, with their sole defeat during that spell arriving at Liverpool.
Unai Emery’s men will aim to maintain their impressive momentum in the next week when they face FC Basel in the Europa League on Thursday, before travelling to face West Ham at the London Stadium on Sunday.
Arsenal had suffered just one defeat in their previous 21 Premier League away fixtures, which also came at Anfield. The Gunners head to Belgium to face Club Brugge in the Champions League on Wednesday.
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.”
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Sky Sports discounted Premier League and EFL package
Sky has slashed the price of its Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle ahead of the 2025/26 season, saving members £336 and offering more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more.
Sky will show at least 215 live Premier League games next season, an increase of up to 100 more.
