Martin Keown predicts Arsenal could win the Premier League because of the ‘momentum’ of their penalty shootout victory against Porto… but Rio Ferdinand warns the Gunners legend ‘let’s not go there’

Martin Keown believes Arsenal’s penalty shootout victory against Porto in the Champions League could propel them to lift the Premier League this season, but Rio Ferdinand has warned him against making such claims.

The Gunners ended their agonizing 14-year wait to reach the Champions League quarter-finals when David Raya made brilliant penalty saves to win the shootout 4-2.

Mikel Arteta’s side now face a last-16 tie against one of Europe’s biggest teams and Arsenal legend Keown believes the momentum could take them to the English top-flight title.

Arsenal currently sit top of the Premier League standings heading into the upcoming international break, tied on 64 points with Liverpool and just one point ahead of defending champions City.

Speaking on TNT Sports, Keown praised Arsenal’s European success and called his former team “potential winners” in the Premier League race.

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‘What it means is momentum. And it means Arsenal can now arrive in that city full of confidence. You know, it’s the lions’ den, we know they got six trophies last year, Man City are the best team,” he said.

“But they leave, they are very confident now and they are in good shape.” I think it would have been a bit depressing if they had lost this tonight and then gone into the game against City because they were out of the FA Cup.

But now this keeps it working wonderfully. The players grow from there and now there is a lot of confidence.

“And it’s a really important night where they can feel like they’re going to potentially be winners, you know, because that’s the thing now, moving on to the next stage.”

Ferdinand quickly dispelled Keown’s bold statement and responded, “Let’s not go there, Martin, it’s too soon.”

Keown doubled down on his prediction, continuing: “If you want to win something I’m offering, they want to win something.”

Refusing to entertain further discussion of Arsenal’s Premier League credentials, Ferdinand instead focused on the evening’s events at the Emirates.

“Of course you want to win, but I think the most important thing today is that they showed spirit.” They never seemed to be in complete control,” she said.

“I think a lot of people expected him to come into this stadium and, like me, like us, we expected Arsenal to control the pace of this game, be aggressive and be on the front foot.

“But you realize that at this level there are teams that can go back and forth head-to-head and have the confidence to do it.” But I think spirit is the predominant factor I see here.

“The later scenes, the fans, the players, the connection with the fans, now create a strong bond that I can feel in place now.

“That will be very useful for him in the last phase of this competition and in the qualifying phase of the Premier League,” he added.