Gary Neville has claimed Mikel Arteta is ‘going to regret this if he doesn’t take the handbrake off’ after the Arsenal boss came under fire for his negative team selection against Manchester City on the weekend.
Despite his side salvaging a draw thanks to a stunning Gabriel Martinelli lob at the death, Arteta’s decision to leave out Eberechi Eze and Bukayo Saka in favour of Mikel Moreno and Leandro Trossard has been heavily criticised.
He made a similarly defensive choice at Liverpool last month, again dropping Eze for Merino, who has become a fixture in his Spanish boss’s side in games against the top-six.
Speaking after the 1-1 draw at the Emirates, Arteta defended his selection-choice, arguing Arsenal ‘dominated’ the clash against Pep Guardiola’s City.
But former United defender Neville believes the Gunners boss, who is under increasing pressure to bring silverware to north London this term, may come to regret his negative approach.
‘I don’t think 60 or 70,000 Arsenal fans in the stadium can be wrong in how they feel, I don’t think any of us that were in the studio or watching on the television at home can be wrong either,’ the Mancunian said on Stick to Football.
Mikel Arteta has come under fire for his negative team selections so far this term
Gary Neville has argued that the Spaniard may come to ‘regret’ his tactics come the end of the season
‘The big thing for me is the players. He names that team on Friday afternoon and he leaves out Eze, Martinelli and he puts Trossard in and Merino, I guarantee that dressing room are thinking, “you’ve done the same again”.
‘He could’ve been more attacking at Anfield and he wasn’t, and he certainly could’ve been more attacking against City and he wasn’t.
‘He’s going to regret this if he doesn’t start to take the handbrake off. I’m going to repeat my comment about the handbrake because he’s got players there that need to play in these games. You can’t look back at the end of the season and think, “I’ve dropped five points now in those two matches and I could’ve picked a more attacking team”.
‘There’s a problem there which is starting to become a pattern.’
Having come off the bench at half-time, Eze went on to play a key part in the equaliser with an impressive ball over the top to set Martinelli up.
With Martin Odegaard still to return to injury, Arteta is set for more selection headaches in the coming weeks with the Norwegian, Eze, Martinelli, Saka and Trossard all vying for a spot in the team.
The Spaniard however insisted insisted his team-selection on the weekend was far from negative after Arsenal controlled 68 per cent of the ball against a Guardiola team notorious for keeping possesion.
‘I don’t read it (the criticism),’ he said in his post-match interview, ‘If you tell me this (the handbrake comment) is the main one and if I am surprised, I would be extremely surprised with my knowledge and know-how and how I analyse a football game.
Arteta has left out new recruit Eberechi Eze in favour of Mikel Merino against both Liverpool and Man City
Arteta hit back at criticism by claiming his side ‘dominant’ Pep Guardiola’s City at the Emirates
‘Because it was impossible for somebody to predict such a dominance from Arsenal throughout 96 minutes because it never happened in 17 years of Pep as a manager.
‘So if the narrative goes somewhere else, and we’re talking about dominance, not about something else, how can you be dominant against such a team if you have, what was the word? Handbrake.
‘Dominance and handbrake, they are two different words. But I accept everything. I will learn more to have a different vision.’
The Gunners were back in action on Wednesday evening, beating Port Vale 2-0 in the Carabao Cup thanks to goals from Eze and Trossard.
They travel to Newcastle United on Sunday in the Premier League without Odegaard, Noni Madueke and likely William Saliba, all of whom have been suffering with injury.
