Gary Neville is convinced Manchester City will win the Premier League title for the third consecutive season despite Arsenal being eight points clear at the top of the table.
The Gunners capitalized on City’s defeat in Saturday’s Manchester derby to defeat arch-rivals Spurs in a comfortable 2-0 win.
An own goal from Hugo Lloris and a goal from Martin Odegaard separated the two sides on paper, but Arsenal overcame Antonio Conte’s side at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Arsenal have picked up a whopping 15 wins from 18 Premier League games this season, the only defeat being a 3-1 loss to Manchester United in September.
Despite recovering from that defeat and going on to take 32 points from a possible 36, Neville told Sky Sports after the game he believes Manchester City are yet to overtake the Gunners and start one of their famous winning streaks.
“If Erling Haaland starts to play, if City starts to purr, if the defense starts to be a little more secure than before – and they need Ruben Dias back – then I think City will win [the title],” he said the United legend.
“There will be a very difficult period for Arsenal at some point this season. Is it conceivable that Arsenal can go on like this? I don’t think so. They can draw two and one defeat in three games – and if so that’s the case, the lead is gone and the pack has caught up with them. I think we’re going to see a traditional Premier League season where a pace-setter team goes out and then falls a little behind.”
“But I still believe this season will be a lot better for Arsenal than I ever imagined,” admitted Neville.
The former right-back added he hopes Arsenal win the league. Speaking of Mikel Arteta, he said: “I know the Arsenal fans are going to smack me like they’ve been doing for the last four months: I hope you win the league! I think it’s so difficult for Mikel Arteta To break through the phalanx of [Antonio] Conte, [Jürgen] Klopp, [Carlo] Ancelotti, [Pep] Guardiola, [Jose] Mourinho as a young coach and become one of those super coaches. You can’t break them.”
“If Arteta wins the league this season, he’s in that group. He’ll do it anyway because his football is fantastic. But he has to win this trophy,” Neville said. “A Champions League, a Premier League, those are the super coaches who win those trophies. So I’ll keep my fingers crossed for them that if Man Utd can’t do it, which I don’t think, they can do it. Let them [Arsenal ] would rather win the Premier League.”
“Man City have won too many titles for me!”
This article was originally published on 90min.com as Gary Neville explaining why Arsenal won’t win the Premier League.
