Gary Neville has poked fun at Arsenal fans who criticized him for his criticism of Oleksandr Zinchenko after the Gunners’ title fight imploded.
Their 3-0 defeat to Brighton on Sunday coupled with Man City’s win over Everton by the same scoreline meant that Pep Guardiola’s side were four points clear with a game in hand and could now win the league this weekend.
In dissecting what went wrong for Mikel Arteta’s side, Neville accused Arsenal of ‘over-celebrated’ wins and claimed their players were guilty of getting ‘too emotional’ during their battle with 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 clear of City at the top of the table, but a disastrous run of just nine points from a possible 21 derailed their title attempt.
Gary Neville has poked fun at Arsenal fans who criticized him for his criticism of Oleksandr Zinchenko after the Gunners’ title fight imploded
Zinchenko had posted an Instagram clip of him honking his horn and yelling ‘Come on’ to celebrating Arsenal supporters after they beat Crystal Palace 4-1 in March
And following his criticism, Arsenal fans quickly hit back at Neville on social media.
An Arsenal supporter shared a photo of a 2016 MailOnline article in which the former United defender had admitted he would pay a £5,000 fine for his infamous celebration against Liverpool a hundred times.
In the 2006 game at Old Trafford, Rio Ferdinand had scored a final win to secure a 1–0 victory before Neville celebrated like a madman in front of Reds supporters.
They also posted another screenshot from his playing days when Marcel had criticized the FA for fining him for his impassioned celebration in the aforementioned game, claiming that ‘they (should) want robot players who are devoid of passion’.
They captioned the two photos with, “Are you @Gnev2?”.
The pundit shared the tweet, saying “I think so,” along with a party emoji.
Elsewhere, another tweet from a Gunners fan said: “Anyone remember Gary Neville kissing Paul Scholes on the lips when United beat City in 2010, only for Chelsea to win the league that year? Overcelebrating @GNev2?”
This was when Scholes scored an injury time winner against United’s bitter rivals during one of the final games of the 2009–10 season as Sir Alex Ferguson’s side battled with the Blues for the title.
The former United defender laughed off several tweets from Arsenal fans after his comments
Neville had accused the Gunners of getting ‘too emotional’ in their title fight with Man City
Neville laughed the tweet off and simply said, “Look at them!”, with four crying emojis of laughter.
Meanwhile, Neville added another tweet that read, “How many fan channels does Arsenal have?”, using the same emoji he used to enjoy the collapse of Arsenal fans.
In his original criticism of Zinchenko on Monday Night Football, the 48-year-old had said: “I’ve always doubted whether this Arsenal team [could win the title]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.
“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 later responded to an Arsenal fan on Twitter, who said: “There are reasons why Arsenal’s results have gone down, but I don’t think Zinchenko honking his car at some Arsenal fans is one of them.”
He wrongly 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.
Gunners supporters had highlighted Neville’s passionate celebrations when he was a player, such as his infamous celebration against Liverpool in 2006 (left) and when he kissed Paul Scholes as United beat City in 2010 (right)
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
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!’