Gary Neville warns ‘something isn’t right at Man City’ after Tottenham defeat

Gary Neville is starting to have doubts about Manchester City’s title tip because “something is not right” at the club following the loss at Tottenham.

Arsenal fell to a shock defeat to Everton on Saturday, presenting the chance for City to close the gap at the top to just two points.

Only he did not achieve it in an abject performance in which he lost 1-0 and remains five behind Arsenal with one more game.

It was alarming to Neville how the exhibition was “not a Pep Guardiola performance” and the former Manchester United defender is struggling to pin down exactly why the atmosphere around the champions is “strange” at the moment.

‘Something is not right at Man City. It feels a bit strange at the moment,” Neville said during comments on City’s 1-0 defeat to Tottenham, in which Harry Kane scored to overtake Jimmy Greaves as Spurs’ all-time top scorer. .

Manchester City’s ‘bizarre’ defeat at Tottenham has Gary Neville questioning his title prediction

City’s defeat means they stay five points behind Arsenal after playing one more game

Speaking in The Gary Neville Podcastthe Sky pundit added that a turbulent January, which saw Joao Cancelo sent to Bayern and top stars relegated to the substitute bench, had him questioning his title prediction.

“I’m less sure about City because of what happened last week,” he said.

‘The Cancelo incident, the departure of (Kevin) De Bruyne, (Ruben) Dias and (Aymeric) Laporte are still stuck on the bench, (Ilkay) Gundogan is on the bench today, it all feels a bit strange.

“Pep Guardiola is a genius and this is a moment in time, but he is not without criticism.” This is a very strange period in terms of what is going on. They are not right. That was not a Pep Guardiola performance.

City’s midfield, usually an area of ​​strength for them, which has helped them win four of the last five league titles, looked out of place and at times outplayed by Tottenham, prompting Neville’s concern. .

Man City have already lost four games this season, more than the entirety of 2021-22, where they won the title by a single point ahead of Liverpool.

Neville (right) felt the loss was “not a performance by Pep Guardiola (left)” which is alarming

Neville has long maintained that City have a ‘special run’ that will see them edge Arsenal to the title, but the tide may well be turning, with even Guardiola publicly declaring that his players cannot think of defending their crown.

“It’s important for us to be close and come out fifth, which is Tottenham at the moment, far away to ensure qualification for the Champions League,” Guardiola said.

“The team started very well in many things, but after a mistake that we made for two more weeks, we repeated it.”

He added: ‘We are not in a position to think about being champions, just the next game, Aston Villa, we will prepare well and play our game to the best of our ability.

Tottenham have a fantastic team and squad and they punish you. They have a lot of quality up front and they don’t need much with transitions, set pieces, give them a lot of credit.’

City face a midweek trip to the Emirates Stadium on February 15 before the reverse game at the Etihad Stadium on April 26, in what are two very significant games in the title race.

They last met in late January in the FA Cup fourth round with City advancing with a 1-0 win.