Gary Neville has accused Arsenal of ‘celebrating too much’ of victories before their Premier League title collapse, with their players guilty of getting ‘too emotional’ during the battle against Manchester City.
The Sky Sports pundit used as an example the viral social media clip of Oleksandr Zinchenko honking his horn and shouting ‘come on’ as he drove past a group of celebrating Arsenal fans after their 4-1 win over Crystal Palace in March.
At the time, the Gunners were eight points ahead of City at the top of the table, but a disastrous run of just nine points from a total of 21 saw Arsenal overtake Pep Guardiola’s team who were on the verge of a third title. secure row.
Analyzing Arsenal’s 3-0 home defeat to Brighton on Sky’s Monday Night Football, Neville said: “I’ve always doubted this Arsenal team, just looking at some of the things that happened.
‘The excessive partying against Aston Villa [after the 4-2 win in February]. I watch little things that might look a bit harsh – Zinchenko is celebrating with the fans outside an hour after the game and screaming.
Oleksandr Zinchenko posted an Instagram clip of him honking his car and shouting ‘Come On’ to celebrating Arsenal supporters after they beat Crystal Palace 4-1 in March
Gary Neville accused Arsenal of getting ‘too emotional’ in their title fight with Man City
“You want your leaders in the team, who have been there before, to spread calm in the locker room and calm everyone down. You don’t want them to take away the fear, take away the emotion.”
Neville responded to an Arsenal fan on Twitter, who said: “There are reasons why Arsenal’s results have fallen, but I don’t think Zinchenko honking his car at some Arsenal fans is one of them.”
Neville falsely said the Zinchenko video emerged after the dramatic 3-2 win over Bournemouth rather than the Palace win just before the international break in March.
But the fan pointed out that both results came amid a run of seven league wins in a row that put Mikel Arteta’s side in a very strong position to clinch a first title since 2004.
Neville later replied: “If he honked 15 games out after beating Bournemouth, 6 games away against the bottom of the league [the 3-3 draw with Southampton last month].
“I’m filling in the blanks of what happened behind the scenes!!! I’ve seen it before from emotional teams!
“The experience I’m talking about isn’t just winning titles! I also lost 4/5 title races.
‘Some emotions are not positive for a group, even if they look like them!’
Neville’s comments on Monday Night Football were shouted out on Twitter by an Arsenal fan
Neville responded by stating that Arsenal were unable to keep a cool head under title pressure
The Gunners players huddle for the second half of their 3-3 draw against lowly Southampton
City, who are now four points ahead of Arsenal with one game left, could be champions again this weekend if the Gunners lose at Nottingham Forest.
In an exclusive interview with Mail Sport in March, Zinchenko spoke about his celebration after the Palace match.
“This is one of my favorite corners in London,” he said. “Every time I pass this pub – because it’s the way to my home – and every time there are a lot of Arsenal fans.
“Every time I try to roll down my window and scream because after (a game) I have incredible energy. And you just want to share those emotions with them.’
The Ukrainian defender added: “We are not robots, we are humans. We just do our job and if this work is successful, why can’t we (celebrate)? I do not understand.
“Of course we haven’t won the Premier League yet and there are still a lot of games to play. But every game in the Premier League is so tough… that’s why we’re celebrating.”
Neville also said on Sky: “I think there is an element of throwing the title away because of the nature of the defeats.
‘Lead in games, 2-0 lead in two games [at Liverpool and West Ham], lost 3-1 to the bottom of the league. What happened yesterday.
‘In 2023 we will not use the same emotional language as in previous years.
“There’s no question that if this went back to the Kevin Keegan era, it would be described very harshly, this Arsenal team would be under attack right now because of what has happened in recent weeks.
Reality sinks in for the Arsenal players as they descend to a devastating home loss to Brighton
Mikel Arteta’s team have come so close yet so far in their title race against Manchester City
City are now four points clear of Sunday’s results and have one game in hand over Arsenal
Granit Xhaka clashes with Trent Alexander-Arnold at Anfield (left) and Aaron Ramsdale’s stray pass against Southampton (right) could be seen as fatal moments for Arsenal’s title challenge
“But of course we are much more aware and much more aware of the language we use around it.
“But what we have to say about it is that at the elite level, at high performance levels, you have to make sure you perform, whether it’s in Augusta coming up or the World Snooker Championships, whether it’s the Olympics. Games, the biggest moments, the most pressurized moments, you have to deliver it in those moments.
“I said I was cold during the title fight and I think there was just an element of emotion. Xhaka at Anfield [squaring up to Trent Alexander-Arnold with Arsenal 2-0 ahead]Partey loses his form in games and gets caught on the ball in difficult moments.
“All of that made it really hard for them mentally and it’s been a big problem for them for the past few weeks.”