Arsenal crashed to a 3-0 defeat against Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League on Sunday, with Gary Neville opining on their recent slump.
Title rivals Manchester City need just one more win from their remaining three matches to secure the league title ahead of Arsenal. Manchester United legend and Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville has now outlined the lack of experience and quality, suggesting that Arsenal might have bottled the title race right at the end.
The Gunners have looked vulnerable at the back in William Saliba’s absence. But Neville believes that teams like Manchester City have had one or two players missing from time to time as well. He added that Arsenal were holding out on hope that Manchester City would drop points against Everton.
“In the end, the title race has just been too much. People will point towards an injury to one player: Saliba. I can’t listen to that, I’m sorry. With 20-odd players in your squad, I can’t listen to that. City have had players missing over the years, Liverpool have had players missing. Every team in a title race has a player missing. If they had five or six players missing, I would have said that was really unlucky. They have not had to experience that.”
“Arsenal just could not cope and in the end, they did not have the energy. I think that was as much about energy and mentality as it was about quality today. They just lost their legs at the vital moment. You need vast experience to come through that and I always wondered whether Arsenal had that experience, I always doubted it. I always doubted their experience at the end to cope when the young players would feel the pressure.”
“The experienced players have just not been quite there for them. Experienced players stay still, they stay calm, they settle everything down and make sure they get you through difficult moments. That is what I always doubted. The Arsenal spine has wobbled at the most difficult time. They were never capable in my mind of holding it together. But that is not to say they can’t in the future. They can develop that experience, they can add a couple of players, Mikel Arteta is a young manager. So all is not lost here.”
It seems highly likely that Manchester City will win the title this season, and Arsenal will come out as the second-best. However, there is no doubt that Arsenal have shown tremendous progress under Mikel Arteta, and they were one of the best teams in the league this season.
It has not been the ideal outcome for them but they will still return to the UEFA Champions League after a while. The Gunners have a number of talented young players at their disposal, and this experience could prove to be priceless for them in the coming seasons.
The Arsenal players are likely to learn from this and they could come back stronger and compete for the league title once again. With a couple of intelligent additions, there is no reason why Arsenal cannot compete towards the top of the table once again.
Meanwhile, Manchester City will look to continue their domestic dominance with a victory over Chelsea in their next game. Pep Guardiola has done an exceptional job at the English club and Manchester City or now set to finalise their fifth league title in six years.
Regardless of their resources, Manchester City have managed to drill incredible consistency and discipline into the side, and they have been the best team in the country over a number of years.
