Gary Neville has finally conceded that Arsenal could beat Manchester City to the Premier League title and says Pep Guardiola is ‘messing around’ with his team too much.
The former right-back turned pundit has always backed the champions to defend their crown and was convinced Arsenal would fall away, even predicting old club Manchester United would finish above the Gunners.
But, despite their loss to Everton at the weekend, Neville has now backtracked on his prediction and believes City are opening the door to an Arsenal title win.
‘I think they played quite well [against Everton], I didn’t think it was a bad one – obviously it’s a bad result for them,’ said Neville on the latest edition of The Overlap.
‘Do you know something, we were at the City game on Sunday and when the team came through I thought for the first time that Arsenal could win the league.
‘And that’s not looking smart after the event because City had lost, but I just thought he [Guardiola] is messing around, he’s tinkering far too much.
‘I don’t know why Kevin De Bruyne isn’t playing, I don’t know why Ilkay Gundogan is not playing, I don’t know why Ruben Dias is not back in the centre of that defence with Aymeric Laporte to make them solid.
‘I saw the team and I thought, from the point of view of my prediction – which is that City will catch Arsenal – I was less sure on Sunday than I’ve ever been.
‘I was pretty certain two weeks ago, I was actually certain on Saturday afternoon, I thought, “Right, City will do it proper tomorrow, this will be a proper champion’s performance, he [Pep] won’t mess around” but if he carries on doing what he’s doing…’
City loaned out Joao Cancelo in the January window – who was unhappy with his recent lack of game time – while they were charged with breaking financial fair play rules on Monday, and Neville feels the noise around the club could be a big problem.
He continued: ‘This is the stuff that we’re seeing in the last couple of weeks that makes me think my prediction could be wrong. And it’s not because of what Arsenal are doing, it’s actually what City are not doing.
‘I’m not saying Arsenal haven’t had a great season. But you cannot, if Man City are purring, win the league off Manchester City in my opinion.’
Neville added: ‘I still think City will win the league, but the fact we’re even talking about Arsenal winning the league is a miracle from where I thought they would be at the end of last season.’
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