Gary Neville, in his role as Manchester United-supporting Sky Sports pundit, has finally admitted he is less confident in his prediction that Manchester City will beat Arsenal to the Premier League title.
Despite still anticipating that Man City will overtake Arsenal, because he just can’t cope with the alternative, Neville acknowledges that the Gunners could win the league for the first time in 19 years.
He cited Man City’s left-back position, tinkering with the team and system, and Arsenal’s impressive form this season as factors influencing his prediction.
“Arsenal have struggled in latter parts of seasons, with last season the most recent example of this,” Neville said.
“This is why Manchester City will win the Premier League, because when it gets to the last 10 games, Arsenal will start to panic a little bit, the anxiety will kick in, pressure builds.
“If Arsenal do it and win the league it will be an unbelievable achievement, but they haven’t been around the block like Manchester City.
“When it gets to the final 10 games and it really kicks in – [Kevin] De Bruyne, [Erling] Haaland, [Ruben] Dias, [Ilkay] Gundogan, Bernardo Silva, Kyle Walker – these guys who have been there before, they’ll push on. But there are teams who get over the line for the first time and this could be the year for Arsenal.”
These are all points that Aaron Ramsdale recently addressed.
“What’s driving us on is the scars of last year — no one has forgotten about what happened,” Ramsdale said after the win over Everton.
“That’s obviously a big driving force in this team, [it hurt] a lot — especially as it was to the other lot down the road, which made it even worse for our fans and for us.
“It is just knowing our mistakes at the end of the season, the teams we dropped points against and knowing we have to trust our process, our basics, knowing that if we do nine out of 10, 10 out of 10, then we should get results.
“And if we don’t, at least we can say we have done everything we can. There were times last year we dipped under our levels, didn’t do what we had practised or what we had done all season, so it was a big lesson for us and we are just taking it into each game at the minute.”
