‘We’ve got our Arsenal back’ – Gunners legend Keown on why Arteta’s side are ready to end title drought

“But I think they can handle it. They just need a little bit of luck, because you need luck. In any team I’ve ever won in, you’ve been lucky.”

Keown believes Arsenal’s shock FA Cup defeat at Southampton earlier in the season may yet prove beneficial in the closing weeks, even if no elite side would ever deliberately sacrifice a competition.

“You don’t pick and choose which competitions you want to be in,” he said. “You go out and give it everything in each competition.

“But the fixture list makes it really difficult. Arsenal are trying to win the Champions League and the Premier League all at once and up against Man City. It’s one hell of a battle.

“If Arsenal were still in the FA Cup, how would they manage those fixtures? It does get in the way of the latter stages of the Champions League.”

Keown knows better than most what it takes to survive the pressure of a title race and says nerves are inevitable, even for Pep Guardiola’s serial champions.

“We still don’t know as we sit here now,” he said. “There was that 3-3 game against Everton where I saw nerves creeping in. But it’s not exclusive to Arsenal nerves.

“So let’s see how City manage and Arsenal manage these last few games.”

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Regardless of how the season ends, Keown believes Arsenal’s return to Europe’s top table and another relentless title push proves the club are once again moving in the right direction under Arteta.

“I think they’ve had a very good season,” he said. “They’re in the Champions League final for only the second time in their history and they are going to take Man City absolutely to the wire.”

For Keown, perhaps the most encouraging aspect of Arsenal’s resurgence is the emergence of another exciting generation of homegrown talent, something he sees as central to every great Arsenal side.

From Tony Adams’ era under George Graham to Wenger’s reign, academy graduates and young British players formed the heartbeat of the club. Keown now sees echoes of that tradition in Bukayo Saka, Myles Lewis-Skelly and highly-rated teenager Max Dowman.

“Without doubt, homegrown players are important,” he said. “It’s great to see the youngsters coming through.

“You’ve got that now with Dowman coming, Marli Salmon as well. Those two are so young and they could be together for the next 15 or 20 years, that’s the hope.

“Lewis-Skelly was brilliant the other day in midfield. He’s a great character. And Bukayo Saka is a real role model.

“He’s such a young man but he’s carried the club really and now he’s back in position again.

“The more we can get these young homegrown players mixed with experience and quality into the team, and give the manager options for the run-in, that’s key to Arsenal being successful.”

For supporters who have waited a generation to see Arsenal lift the title again, Keown senses something familiar returning to north London.

And unlike many former players who fear disappointment after years of near misses, the Invincible sounds ready to believe again.

“I think it’s going to go to the wire,” he said. “But I’m hopeful Arsenal can do it.”

Martin Keown was talking ahead of a month like no other, with five major football finals live on TNT Sports  & HBO Max kicking off with the Emirates FA Cup this Saturday.