Gary Neville SLAMS Arsenal's lifeless end-of-season run-in
‘It’s a mentality thing’: Gary Neville SLAMS Arsenal’s lifeless end-of-season run-in and insists Mikel Arteta has a huge job on his hands in ‘shifting’ the mindset of his young Gunners
- Gary Neville has slammed Arsenal’s performances in their end-of-season run-in
- The Gunners underperformed in crunch clashes as they tried to win the title
- Neville believes Arsenal’s main problems are with the squad’s mentality
Gary Neville believes that Mikel Arteta has to change Arsenal’s ‘mentality’ if the Gunners want to compete for the Premier League title again next season.
Arsenal surrendered the title to Manchester City following an untimely drop in form that saw them draw with Liverpool, West Ham and Southampton before losing to the eventual champions and Brighton at the Emirates.
Their 1-0 defeat away to Nottingham Forest on Saturday concluded the title race as Pep Guardiola’s dominant City side were gifted a third consecutive title without even kicking a ball.
Neville labelled Arsenal’s end-of-season run-in as ‘desperate’ and highlighted a damning statistic that shows how Arteta’s talented side of youngsters fell to pieces in their final matches.
‘You have to be exceptional to beat City. Arsenal were on target for 100 points. It’s a desperate run in for Arsenal, no one would have imagined Arsenal would drop these points,’ Neville said on Sky Sports Monday Night Football.
Mikel Arteta (right) has overseen Arsenal’s Premier League title collapse during the end-of-season run-in
Arsenal had the title within their reach but couldn’t get the job over the line
‘If Arsenal had picked up their necessary points that they would have done in the early parts of the season, the City pressure was enormous, and the title run in is enormous pressure, they would still be level or even a point or two in front if they’d done their jobs just in those games against the teams at the bottom of the table, Brighton at home as well.
‘When you look at the context of how poor a run in it is for Arsenal, we know last season they had the top four in their grasp and went on a really bad run towards the end of the season.
‘I looked this morning at this graphic, this shows Arsenal have the lowest collection of points of any team in Premier League history in the last ten games that they have finished in the top three,’ he added.
Manchester City became Premier League champions for the third consecutive year on Sunday
Gary Neville (pictured) believes Arteta has to change the ‘mentality’ of his young Arsenal side
‘It just tells you what Mikel Arteta is going to have to shift. It’s a mentality thing in the final part of the season, it’s an experience thing that in the last two seasons in the real two moments, they’ve not been able to handle that in the last ten games of both seasons.
‘If they’d have got those ten games in both seasons they’d have been in the Champions League last season and they potentially could have been champions this time,’ finished Neville.
Arsenal have overachieved by all expectations previously held at the start of the season following a previously mixed campaign that saw them slip away from Champions League qualification.
Arteta has lead the Gunners back to Europe’s premier cup competition and will have to balance that with a title charge that Arsenal supporters will be demanding next season.
Source: Read Full Article