Well, I have to say that Gary Neville was spot on in his predictions all through last season, saying that Arsenal would crumble under pressure and lose the race to Man City towards the end of the season. Much as we disliked him for it, he was totally correct, and I sincerely hope he is right in his prediction for this season as well!
The fact is that he believes that last season’s collapse will have helped the Gunners to “mature” and he believes that our young team won’t make the same mistake this time around.
“I’ve got Arsenal to win the league this year.” Neville said in his SkySports podcast after watching Man City’s defeat at Wolves. “That post-treble feeling, what it would have taken out of those City players and staff would have been enormous.”
“They could easily win the league this season and obviously it is just one game, but little results like that give the other teams encouragement.
“We know City have lost games in the past and gone on long winning runs so we can’t write them off but it will give a lot of encouragement to Arsenal.
“Against Newcastle, it was a serious team that Pep Guardiola took up there and at Wolves, they’re conceding a goal or two, they’re going behind in games and they look human.
“It will be interesting. If Arsenal keep their players fit, they’ve got a great chance this season.
“It was a good response from Arsenal [against Bournemouth]. They’d have come out of the north London derby disappointed. They’ll face those moments in the season.
“They’ll be confident that they are back in the title race. The gap isn’t going to four points or six, when you wonder if you will ever catch them.
“Stay with them and get to that point where there are nine or 10 games to go again.
“Arsenal won’t run away and win the league, your first title is very rarely like that, you have to get over the line crawling.
“Last season they fell apart late-on and made mistakes, but they have to get in that position again. Then we’ll see if they’ve matured. I think they will have.
“I just want them to have composure and be a bit more ruthless. Big tests are coming and I’m looking forward to seeing what happens, because it won’t all be about Manchester City this season.”
Well, Man City losing to Wolves did come as a bit of a shock, but it shows that Man City are not unbeatable, now maybe playing them next week will be the cherry on the icing and we can let them play catchup on us this time around.
Three cheers for Gary Neville!
Sam P
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