Gary Neville claims Arsenal ‘misfit’ creates ‘problem’ as another star ‘a lot better’ than he thought

Manchester United legend Gary Neville has claimed that an Arsenal “misfit” has created a “problem” for head coach Mikel Arteta.

Arsenal returned to winning ways on Saturday afternoon, beating Ange Postecoglou’s Nottingham Forest 3-0 at the Emirates.

The Gunners produced a dominant performance as they bounced back from their disappointing loss to Liverpool before the international break.

Summer signing Martin Zubimendi scored an impressive brace, while Viktor Gyokeres tapped home from close range to grab his third goal in four Premier League matches.

Gyokeres is second to Kylian Mbappe in our 2025 top scorers in Europe ranking, though he was ineffective against Liverpool and Man Utd.

Neville has explained why he thinks Gyokeres “could get 20 goals this season”, but he has created a “problem” at Arsenal.

“Gyokeres… good day for him. The problem is for Arsenal they’ve got so many silky players in Zubimendi, Odegaard, Madueke, Eze, and you look at Gyokeres and he’s a misfit,” Neville said on The Gary Neville Podcast..

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“He’s a misfit for that group of players in a sense of he’s not technically amazing, but I actually like that sort of contrast, that idea of having this battering ram who is sort of ungainly and I think he’ll beat up small teams.

‘Whether he’ll do it in the big games and score in the big games, not as sure. I think that the best defenders might handle him, we’ll see.

“But I think he’ll beat up smaller teams for Arsenal, that’s not a bad thing, scoring loads of goals, getting 20 goals this season which he could do, they don’t potentially have to be all against the big teams, but just early on seeing him be a real threat, a handful, and I think Arsenal need a bit of imperfection in their attack, maybe someone who can get it into the box a little bit quicker.”

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Neville has also lauded Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke, with the latter being “a lot better” than he thought.

“Madueke, Eze… when you think about Martinelli and Saka, you thought they would dominate the right and left wing of Arsenal for the next five, ten years,” Neville added.

“Yet you’re watching two players yesterday, obviously Saka will come back in and Martinelli will play games as well… but Madueke is a lot better than I imagined and thought he would be. And certainly a lot better than Arsenal fans thought he would be.

“A couple of runs that he made for England on Tuesday night were a different level, they’re runs I thought, ‘ooh’. They’re runs… Arjen Robben used to make those runs against me.

“I’m giving you players where they’re a sort of level where you think, ‘ooh, I’m up against it, this is a different type of player’. Sometimes you play against a winger and they’re dribbling at you and you know they’ve got a trick and you know that you’re going to be in for a different game, then you’ve got players who are a step above, a level above.

“I’m not saying Madueke is there yet, but his movement and the things that he’s doing are very, very good, and I’m talking from a full-back’s perspective playing against it.

“Eze looks like he’s got that little bit of something – he has got that something.”