Paris Saint-Germain’s midweek victory has left Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal without a trophy win in five years but pundit Gary Neville has provided a different response to some others
Arsenal saw their European dream come to a painful end on Wednesday night, losing their last chance of finishing this season with a trophy. The Gunners haven’t got their hands on any silverware since lifting the FA Cup in 2020, but Gary Neville has used the opportunity to praise the trust in Mikel Arteta despite the trophy drought.
Arteta has led his team to successive second-place finishes in the league, and Arsenal are in pole position to finish as runners-up for a third straight season. Manchester City’s dropped points on Saturday means the London side will end the weekend in second place behind champions Liverpool.
“I think it’s a great achievement to not win a trophy in… five years and still be the manager of a top club, that isn’t under pressure – from us, from anybody in the football community, or even the Arsenal fanbase.'” Neville said on Sky Sports. “So I think that’s an incredible achievement, because we thought those days were gone where you could basically have this kind of patience afforded to you.”
When asked by fellow pundit Jamie Carragher whether he thought Arteta should be under pressure, Neville was unsure. “No, I think it’s a good thing that for five years to not win a trophy, ordinarily there would be a manager under pressure because that’s significant in the sense that there is progression.”
However, the former Manchester United captain did restate his belief that Arsenal left themselves too short – especially in attack. Their European exit at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain came with Mikel Merino deputising as a number nine, with Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus sidelined, and Neville insisted reinforcements are needed.
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“I’m glad that on Friday in his press conference [Arteta] said [they’d] gone backwards in the Premier League,” Neville continued. “They tickled our backs a little bit for the last month with the Champions League and it sort of took the heat off them a little bit in how bad they’ve been in the league, being 13, 14 points from Liverpool, 13, 14 points from where they were last season and the season before.
“But they’ve left themselves woefully short up top, and they still haven’t got a player in midfield from deep who can receive the ball on the back foot, and [Martin] Zubimendi we think might come to Arsenal. They’ve got to deal with that – [Thomas] Partey’s not great at that, Declan Rice was proven in the first leg against PSG that he’s not great at it, he’s better going forwards.
“So those two key positions, they need two forwards and they need another midfield player, but the forward part of it – they’ve signed one striker in seven seasons as a football club. I’ve been arguing this all season, it’s ridiculous that they’ve left Mikel Arteta – or Mikel Arteta’s left himself – so short. They’ve spent £750m and signed one striker.”
Merino dropped back into midfield on Sunday as Arsenal went up to Anfield to face Liverpool, with Rice missing out through injury. Leandro Trossard started the game up front, flanked by Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli.
There was one other change from the midweek defeat in Paris, with Ben White returning to the starting XI. Liverpool also made a change at right-back, with Conor Bradley replacing the Real Madrid-bound Trent Alexander-Arnold.
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