Gary Neville has slammed Arsenal and Mikel Arteta’s techniques within the wake of the 1-1 draw towards Manchester Metropolis on Sunday.
Gunners rescue late draw towards Man Metropolis
Though the Gunners will likely be upset to not take all three factors towards Man Metropolis, they are going to be happy they managed to rescue a late draw, with Gabriel Martinelli equalising in harm time.
Nonetheless, Arteta’s aspect have been broadly criticised for viewing attracts towards Premier League title rivals as acceptable outcomes prior to now, and they’re now 5 factors behind Liverpool, who continued their good begin to the season within the Merseyside derby.
In equity, the north Londoners have already had some robust fixtures, however Arteta will likely be cautious of not permitting a sizeable hole to open up too early, provided that his aspect didn’t handle to recuperate from a comparatively gradual begin final season.
Talking on The Gary Neville Podcast after the sport, nonetheless, the previous Manchester United defender appeared to level the finger on the supervisor for his tactical method, which closely focuses on dominating set-pieces. He claims all it’s essential to cope with Arteta’s strategies are tall gamers and a bodily dominant goalkeeper who clears and claims crosses.
Neville mentioned: “They seem to be a one-trick pony. Set-pieces are simply such a big share of their possibilities and targets that you find yourself in a state of affairs the place you have simply obtained to have huge gamers within the field and a goalkeeper who comes and punches, and in the event you do not you are gonna get beat up on corners and set-pieces and free-kicks.
“Arsenal are usually not creating sufficient possibilities in these kinds of video games. They’re scoring plenty of targets from set-pieces, six out of their 9 targets earlier than this recreation have come from set-pieces, one in every of them was a penalty. Now that is nice that they are good at set-pieces, nevertheless it’s not ok.”
Neville proper to name Arteta’s techniques into query
Within the post-match interview, Arteta appeared to recommend his aspect may have taken extra from the match, saying: “On the very least [we deserved a point]. I’m so pleased with my gamers, the best way we performed, the best way we dominated nearly each side of the sport. Very upset to not win the sport.”
Nonetheless, it’s troublesome to agree, provided that Viktor Gyokeres was largely nameless, receiving little or no service all through the match.
Having recorded a complete xG of 0.97, in comparison with 0.96 from Metropolis, a draw was in all probability a good outcome, and as identified by Neville, Arsenal want to start out creating extra from open play.
After trailing for therefore lengthy, Arteta will likely be completely satisfied his aspect managed to pressure their approach again into the sport, however the five-point hole that is already opened up will likely be regarding, notably contemplating the fixtures do not get any simpler, with Newcastle United away up subsequent within the Premier League.