Gary Neville has doubled down on his prediction that Arsenal will win the Premier League title and ‘crawl’ over the ending line, despite Manchester City gaining further ground.
Arsenal’s shock home defeat against Bournemouth on Saturday provided Pep Guardiola’s relentless machine with a chance to narrow the gap at Stamford Bridge just 24 hours later.
With the scent of blood within the water, City turned in a ruthless second half display, capped by goals from Nico O’Reilly, Marc Guehi and Jeremy Doku that helped put the seal on a snug 3-0 win.
This Sunday’s summit meeting between the highest two on the Etihad now has the air of a title decider and given City hold the momentum, they are going to start as favourites to record a victory that will firmly turn the balance of their favour.
Neville, nonetheless, insists there isn’t a have to panic and believes the setback against the Cherries is the kind of setback that may occur in a run-in and represents the kind of blow Arsenal must learn to recuperate from.
The previous Manchester United defender, who won eight Premier League titles during his Old Trafford profession, tipped the Gunners to finish their 22-year wait to be crowned domestic champions and he sees no reason why they can not still fulfil their objectives.
He told Sky Sports: ‘I actually have thought for a variety of years with this Arsenal team that they’ve got to go and win a game that shakes the world. They’ve got to go to City next week and win.
‘It doesn’t matter the way it happens – they may get battered in the primary half, but be goalless half-time, but then go and nick one with quarter-hour to go, and impulsively the lights come on and also you’re nine points clear.
‘That’s what Arsenal have gotten to imagine this week.
‘The issue they’ve got is that they haven’t got anybody of experience within the club of winning a title. Gabriel Jesus perhaps, but I don’t think he’s the variety of player that’s going to translate that to a dressing room.
‘He’s player, but he doesn’t appear to be that one who can really set the tone.
‘Mikel Arteta is all the time trying to try to discover a way of how you can gain a bonus and he’s got to try to find something this week.’
He continued: ‘I do feel now’s the time for Arsenal.
‘I’m not going to go and say it’s now or never, but it surely does feel a bit like that.
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‘In case you’ve had five years of attempting to climb that mountain, and also you’ve just failed at that final hurdle every time, there must be a moment where you recover from the road.
‘Arsenal will crawl over the road. I don’t think they’ll recover from the road easily, they may even lose next week, but I do think they’ve probably got just a little little bit of a cushion.
‘Manchester City aren’t perfect, and Arsenal will just get there, but they’re in quite a bit more trouble than they were at 12.30pm on Saturday, after they were nearly to kick off against Bournemouth.’
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