Arsenal hero Keown: Campbell could stop Man Utd ace Rooney

Arsenal hero Martin Keown believes there's very few defenders in the game that can live with Manchester United star Wayne Rooney.

In his column for the Daily Mail, Keown opined: "He’s like a street player - he can play anywhere - but I think you can stop him. You have to match his pace and power but there are a few defenders who can.

"I think Sol Campbell at his best could. I remember Rooney saying Sol was one of his toughest opponents. But very often Rooney is going to get to the ball first and then that knockout punch comes and the ball is in the back of the net.

"That’s the other thing about him - he has great technical ability to go with the rest of the package. He is playing in a more central role now that Cristiano Ronaldo has gone, and the goals are coming. I think he wants to prove that he is as good as Ronaldo.

"You can’t just give him a couple of kicks to rile him, either. You won’t get any change from him now there’s been this tightening-up of his mentality. In the past he got sucked into things, whereas now he looks very focused.

"I wasn’t really into the talking side of things, trying to put people off. It wasn’t our style. I always thought it was better to be a silent assassin.

"I played against Wimbledon teams with the likes of Vinnie Jones and Mick Harford who tried that vocal stuff, but we just played good football.

"Against United it was like a game of chess - they didn’t get distracted by mind games. Rooney is the same. You could have ruffled him before and taken his attention off what he was supposed to be doing, but I think that is very difficult to do now."