“This Is A Very, Very Good Team” – Gary Neville In Awe Of Arsenal’s Structure

By The Editor
on 16th September 2024

Gary Neville praises Arsenal’s win at Spurs…

Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville waxed lyrical on Arsenal’s professional win at Spurs in the north London derby despite a mounting injury list.

Gabriel headed in a 63rd-minute winner at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as Mikel Arteta closed the gap to league leaders Manchester City to just two points.

The pressure on Arsenal to maintain their unbeaten run was palpable, especially with the external noises questioning our ability to cope with this many absentees.

Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard are some of the first names on the team sheet, while our two major summer signings Riccardo Calafiori and Mikel Merino are also nursing injuries.

Despite that, Arteta deployed a rigid 4-4-2 with a deep block to compensate for the lack of legs in midfield and protect Jorginho and Thomas Partey.

For Neville, it was a performance befitting of Premier League champions.

“They had no Martin Odegaard and Declan Rice – two of their very, very best players – but what they did have going into that game was a very good back four and a very defensive shape and unit. Tottenham never broke that,” the former Man Utd skipper said on his podcast.

“That was a team and performance of know-how. Wily, not naive, not immature – it was the opposite of that. It was experienced, mature and it was what a team who has won multiple titles would play like.

“Mikel Arteta hasn’t won a title yet at Arsenal but it was a really good performance.

“We have been so critical of Arsenal over the last 10 to 12 years when they’ve been loose and naive and giving goals away. This is the opposite we’re watching now: they’re a very, very good team we’re watching,” Neville added.

While fans continue to celebrate the team cementing our bragging rights in north London, the focus now shifts to the next task in one of the most demanding weeks of the campaign.

Arsenal travel to Europa League champions Atalanta on Thursday night to begin our Champions League campaign before having to return to London and travel to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side next Sunday.

Arteta navigated the first checkpoint admirably and with Declan Rice now available to be called upon, we can hopefully start to recover some of our injured soldiers and attack every competition we enter.