Neville slams ‘turgid’ Arsenal ‘obsession’ after Liverpool pull away in title race

Gary Neville has hit out at the “obsession” at Arsenal over set-pieces as Liverpool extended their lead in the Premier League title race over the weekend.

The Gunners were beaten 1-0 at home to London rivals West Ham on Saturday as they struggled to score with Mikel Arteta’s side suffering from a number of injuries in attack.

Leaders Liverpool, meanwhile, put in a convincing performance at the Etihad Stadium to beat defending champions Manchester City 2-0 on Sunday.

Those results mean the Reds are now 11 points clear of Arsenal with 12 matches of the season remaining, although the Gunners do have a game in hand.

Set-pieces have been key to some of Arsenal’s success this season with the Gunners’ set-piece coach Nicolas Jover implementing some unorthodox ideas.

But Neville has criticised Arsenal for being “quite turgid” to watch in recent times and the former Manchester United defender doesn’t like their “obsession” with set-pieces.

Neville said on Sky Sports: “Questions will start to be asked because, a little bit like that Leicester season when a couple of the other teams didn’t win it and you start to ask questions of those teams, ‘Hang on a minute, Leicester went and won it’, and it’s that type of season where you think it was up for grabs.

“Arne Slot has come in, new manager, Jurgen Klopp has left… I felt that there would be a drop-off at Liverpool, just the Klopp impact and the effect but he’s been such a cool customer, Arne Slot, from day one.

“He’s had complete control and the way he’s adapted this team, I don’t think it’s a mirror of Klopp at all, it’s very different. I like the way they play in different styles in halves, let alone from game to game.

“For Arsenal, they’ve become quite rigid, they’ve become quite turgid at times to watch. This obsession with set-pieces, it was almost overtaking the whole game, exacerbated by the presence of the set-piece coach on the touchline.

“That puts more focus on the set-pieces and I feel like the freedom has gone a little bit from them.

“I know they’ve lost [Bukayo] Saka, [Gabriel] Jesus and [Kai] Havertz which are big blows, let’s be clear, that is a big problem for Arsenal, but I still think you have to do that job at home to West Ham.”

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Former Man City defender Micah Richards reckons Arsenal will be frustrated that they didn’t manage to get a deal for a new striker over the line in January.

Richards added: “They didn’t want to do business in the January transfer window. They thought maybe there wasn’t quite the value in the market or they couldn’t get the player who would come in and impact them. But they have left themselves short, there’s no doubt about that.

“They have fallen short and even without top players, they still had to do that job yesterday.

“I think over the last two seasons they’ve gone very close and I’ve got a lot of admiration for them.

“This season is more of a problem for them than the last two because when City weren’t going to be there, the team that had to be there were Arsenal, in my mind, because of the growth and how close they were getting.

“It’s not going to be them it looks like and that’s the big shock and surprise and that’s what will hit hardest in that Arsenal boardroom, Mikel Arteta, and with the dressing room and the players because they’re desperate to win a title.

“They were inching nearer so it’s a blow and yesterday… look, it can happen. But Liverpool have dropped points in these last eight games, Liverpool have drawn two in the last three and four in the last eight.

“Arsenal have had a chance to get back closer, they could have gone within five points yesterday so it’s a big blow, a really big blow.”

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