Gary Neville has torn into Arsenal and believes an ‘obsession’ with one facet of their game has left them woefully lacking in the Premier League title race.
Arsenal watched in horror as Liverpool beat Manchester City 2-0 on Sunday to go 11 points clear – just a day after the Gunners were skewered 1-0 at home by West Ham.
After two seasons of coming so close, Neville feels Arsenal have butchered what should have been a crowning campaign for them – and does not rate injuries as an excuse.
He compared their seeming failure to capture the title to the 2015-16 season, when Leicester ran away with it and the expected contenders went out with a whimper.
Of course, Arsenal still have a game in hand on Liverpool and 12 matches left, including a clash at Anfield on May 10.
‘Arsenal have become quite rigid, quite turgid to watch at times,’ the Manchester United legend said on the Gary Neville Podcast.
Arsenal have become so ‘obsessed’ with set-pieces, says Gary Neville, that they are ‘rigid’
The Gunners only managed two shots on target as they slipped to a 1-0 defeat by West Ham
Neville says this season is a ‘problem’ for Arsenal because they should have challenged more
‘This obsession with set-pieces overtaking the whole game, exacerbated by the presence of the set-piece coach (Nicolas Jover) on the touchline and it puts more focus on set-pieces.
‘And it’s like, no, I think the freedom has gone a little bit from them.
‘And I know that they’ve lost (Bukayo) Saka, (Gabriel) Jesus, and (Kai) Havertz, which are big blows and that is a big problem for Arsenal, but I still feel they have to do the job against West Ham at home.
‘It’s a defence but then you’ve got to plan for it. I know they didn’t want to do business in the January transfer window – they thought there wasn’t quite the value in the market or they couldn’t get the player that would come in and impact them.
‘But they have left themselves short, there’s no doubt about that, and they’ve fallen short. Even without players you’ve mentioned they still have to do that job.
‘The last two seasons they’ve gone very close and I’ve had a lot of admiration, felt you’ve gone very close.
‘This season is more of a problem than the last two, because when City weren’t going to be there, the team that had to be there were Arsenal in my mind, because of their growth and how close they were getting.
‘It’s not going to be them, it doesn’t look like, and that’s the big shock and surprise, and I think that’ll be the one that will hit hardest in the board room, and (with) Mikel Arteta, and the dressing room and the player, because they’re desperate to win a title there and they felt like they were inching nearer. It’s a blow.
Liverpool have drawn four of their past eight games but beat Manchester City 2-0 on Sunday
Neville has previously criticised the interference of Arsenal’s set-piece coach Nicolas Jover
Mikel Arteta has had to contend with an injury crisis, but Arsenal could have brought players in in January
‘Yesterday (Saturday), look, it can happen, and they might say Liverpool are doing well, but Liverpool have dropped points in these last eight games, Liverpool have drawn two in the last three, they’ve drawn four in their last eight (before the Man City win) – Arsenal have had a chance to get back closer. They could have gone within five points.
‘It’s a really big blow. Questions will start to be asked because, a little bit like that Leicester season when a couple of the teams didn’t win it, you start to ask questions of those teams, saying, “hang on a minute, Leicester went and won it.” It’s that type of season where it’s up for grabs.’
There is no denying that Arsenal have been dealt a rough hand when it comes to injuries.
At present, they are without their four key attackers in Saka, Jesus, havertz, and Gabriel Martinelli, while back-up option Ethan Nwaneri is also out.
They have also spent considerable chunks of the campaign without other important names such as Martin odegaard, Ben White, and Riccardo Calafiori.
Such is their plight that Arteta has been forced to play midfield Mikel Merino up front in their last two games.
It looked to have eventually paid off against Leicester on February 15 when the Spaniard plucked two late goals out of nowhere to seal a 2-0 win.
But they were unable to finish their dinner against an out-of-form West Ham, hitting the target twice from 20 shots, and succumbed to Jarrod Bowen’s goal.
The Gunners have scored 10 goals from set-pieces this season, the fourth-best total, but topped the table in that metric last campaign with 20.
Neville has previously criticised the strong influence of set-piece coach Nicolas Jover, calling him ‘the most annoying man in football’.
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