Like any sane Manchester United fan, Gary Neville doesn’t want Man City to win the treble this year, even if they’ve always looked likely to overpower Arsenal in the Premier League title race.
Arsenal’s 3-3 draw with Southampton on Friday night puts City in command of the title race. The Gunners are imploding after drawing a third consecutive game, at home to a terrible Saints side, after coming back from 3-1 down and after losing two-goal leads against Liverpool and West in the two previous matches.
It ended in dramatic fashion, too. Arsenal were 3-1 down until the 88th minute when two quick-fire goals from Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka rescued Mikel Arteta’s side a point.
Speaking about Friday’s game between Arsenal and Southampton, Neville said he hopes they can pip City to the title but believes Pep Guardiola’s side’s experience will intimately tell.
“I don’t want Manchester City to win the treble, obviously, so for me Arsenal have got the best chance of stopping them I think,” Neville told Sky Sports, as per the Manchester Evening News. “Arsenal would be unbelievable to go from fifth to first, but my feeling all the way through was that I always looked at this period of games and thought that’s going to be really tough, I’m not sure they’re going to get through it, youth might become a hindrance to them and the leaders might not be able to get the younger ones over the line.
“Last week in the second half at West Ham that was a proper wobble – heading it into midfield, kicking it out for a throw-in, not dropping off for the ball. They’re the signs of tension, nerves, anxiety – that’s what you do, you take the easy options. We used to do it with England in the golden generation, 15 minutes to go against Portugal in the 2004 European Championships, we all started pushing up the pitch rather than getting on the ball.
“In the end you end up just defending for your lives and you end up conceding a goal, then you can’t start playing football again. Arsenal didn’t have a chance in the last 10 minutes last week against West Ham, that was a clear sign they were struggling with what was happening to them in that game.
“They’re going to have more difficult tests to come but I’m really intrigued to see how they handle it, but my feeling is City will overpower them and just stride away to the line. It would be amazing if Arsenal could get there.”
Arsenal were always likely to bottle it at some stage, though I am surprised they’ve gone this long. They’re useless and will have nothing to show for their efforts this season (yet again).
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