Manchester United legend Gary Neville has doubled down on his ‘ludicrous’ verdict regarding Arsenal’s Premier League title hopes.
Everything is coming up roses for Arsenal at the moment, with Mikel Arteta’s side winning eight of their last nine matches in all competitions since losing 1-0 to Liverpool in August.
This run of form, plus Liverpool’s woes, has seen the Gunners move clear at the top of the Premier League, while they also have a perfect record in the Champions League group stages.
It is looking increasingly likely that this could be Arsenal’s season to finally win a major trophy after coming up short in the Premier League and Champions League in recent seasons.
Arsenal were way behind Liverpool in the summer’s biggest spenders standings, though the north London side still invested around £250m on signings to build a complete squad with quality options in every position.
Neville and Co. have argued that Arsenal’s inability to beat their direct title rivals has impacted their title aspirations, but our very own Matt Stead has explained why this verdict is ‘ludicrous’.
‘There is one thing which could get in Arsenal’s way from here: Arsenal,’ Stead wrote.
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‘Manchester City, too, sure. And Liverpool if they ever win a single Premier League match again. Sod it, it’s probably best to keep an eye on Bournemouth as well. But really it’s Arsenal who Arsenal need to be most wary of, because they have a degree of stability, level of intrinsic understanding and depth of quality no-one else can match.’
He added: ‘The idea that “if Arsenal want to win the league they need to go to Anfield and win” was always various shades of ludicrous; it doesn’t particularly feel as though Ruben Amorim is about to use it as a platform for a title challenge this season.
‘But really it was fundamentally wrong because their shortcomings across three consecutive seasons of second-placed finishes were never contained within a Big Six mini table they often topped.’
Despite this, Neville doubled down on his long-term sentiment regarding Arsenal, claiming their results against top opposition mean they must win the Premier League title “from here”.
“They’ve played United away, Man City, Liverpool away. They’ve played nearly everybody already and they’re where they are,” Neville said on the Stick to Football podcast.
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“It is wrong to say this because it is ridiculous and we’ve all been in title races. If they don’t win it from here… we’ve all predicted Arsenal to win the league right, we know it can go wrong.
“If they don’t win it from where the other teams are and the confident position they’re in now… a lot can change, but they’re in a good place. It feels like the Newcastle game turned the corner.
“It’s not a putting pressure on them statement, they just must be thinking, ‘this is us, this year, we’ve got to win it’. When you can bring in Lewis-Skelly for Califiori and Ben White, Mosquera coming in with no drop off, it’s looking scary.”
Rightly, Roy Keane was more cautious with his response as “things could change very quickly” in the Premier League title race.
“We’ve got to be careful,” Keane responded.
“We’ve got a responsibility saying stuff, two or three weeks ago, we see what happened to Liverpool. If Arsenal got a few injuries, things could change very quickly.”