Gary Neville Reacts To Arsenal’s Win At Aston Villa After “Trust” Comments

Gary Neville is starting to feel the pinch with his predictions…

Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville voiced his admiration for Arsenal’s win at Aston Villa days after claiming that fixture could prove to be a banana skin in the Gunners’ top-four ambitions.

Big win that for Arsenal!

— Gary Neville (@GNev2) March 19, 2022

Neville, who has long been one of our biggest detractors, has maintained that he doesn’t believe Arsenal will secure Champions League qualification simply because he doesn’t “trust” us.

Instead – completely unbiasedly, of course – the former Manchester United skipper backed his old club to finish in the top-four despite their lack of consistency this season.

After a run of five Premier League wins in succession, something unprecedented under Mikel Arteta, many observers were waiting to see our response to a disappointing defeat against Liverpool in midweek.

Speaking after that result on Wednesday, Neville claimed it was our response at Villa Park that would start to emphasise our top-four status.

“I said 10 days ago that I didn’t trust Arsenal, that’s not because I don’t like them or I don’t like what Mikel Arteta is doing or what the players are doing, I really do,” the former Valencia coach said to Sky Sports.

“I’ve enjoyed their performance tonight. Organisationally, shape, the authority on the ball and confidence, they’re far better than Manchester United.

“I said I didn’t trust them because we’ve not seen this team go through the last 10 games of the season with a little bit of pressure on them, that hasn’t existed before, because people expect them to finish fourth.

“What will be a big test is Saturday lunchtime and if they do go and get three points at Villa, I think you’ll have to say Arsenal are big favourites.”

Well, Gary, Mikel Arteta’s boys did exactly that and the celebrations at full-time gave the impression that they knew they’d made a huge step to what would be a transformational goal for the club.