Gary Neville has admitted that he thought the Premier League title race would be “done” after Arsenal slipped to a 3-1 defeat against Manchester City.
The Gunners have surpassed all expectations this term are they are mounting a serious challenge for the Premier League title.
Mikel Arteta’s side have been top of the league for much of this season, but they endured a blip a couple of weeks ago.
After they were knocked out of the FA Cup against Man City, they picked up just one point in league games against Everton, Brentford and City.
This closed the gap between Arsenal and Man City in the table, but Arteta’s team have responded brilliantly to these setbacks.
Arsenal have beat Aston Villa and Leicester City in their last two games, while City drew against Nottm Forest and won at AFC Bournemouth. These results mean the Gunners will be five points clear if they beat Everton in their game in hand on Wednesday night.
Neville has been “surprised” by how Arsenal have responded to the league loss to Man City.
“I’ll confess Robbie [Lyle from AFTV], when I watched [Manchester] City beat you on that Wednesday night, honestly, I thought you were done [in the title race],” Neville said on The Overlap.
“Honestly. They got level with you, I thought at that point, 16 games to go at that point, a mountain of games, I just thought they’re going to just drive on and drive on.
“You’re doing what you did against Aston Villa, City obviously dropping points against Forest. I think even to be now where you are, I have to say has surprised me a bit.
“I thought you’d struggled to come back. I thought the two games after that [Aston Villa and Leicester], you could end up dropping points.”
Despite this, Neville is continuing to insist that Man Utd will end up finishing ahead of Arsenal this season.
“That’s my inkling earlier in the season, what normally happens is one team gets so close they realise they can’t win it and then they just go like that in the last two or three games,” Neville said earlier this week.
“You lose two games and then all of a sudden someone else goes above you. I thought City would win the league and United would finish second two or three months ago.
“To be fair, I’m not going to change my mind on it. I still think City are going to win the league even though Arsenal, the closer it gets… but 14 games is still a long way to go. I still think United will finish second.”
READ MORE: Big Midweek… Arsenal v Everton, Liverpool, Erik ten Hag, the Guernsey Grealish, Copa Clasico
Leave a Reply