Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville slammed Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta for diverting from his own tactics in defeat against the Red Devils. United shattered the Gunners’ perfect record in the Premier League by inflicting a 3-1 defeat on them at the Old Trafford. Marcus Rashford hit a brace, his first goals against Arsenal in nearly six years, and new signing Antony was on target as well on his debut.
Neville has come down heavily on Mikel Arteta after he introduced Emile Smith Rowe, Fabio Vieira and Eddie Nketiah for Martin Odegaard, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Oleksandr Zinchenko with the Gunners 2-1 down. The all-out attack approach from the Spaniard reaped no rewards as Arsenal immediately conceded a third which killed the game.
Neville labels Mikel Arteta’s substitutions ‘naive’ and ‘confusing’
Arsenal were clearly a better side among the two throughout the 90 minutes, only for United’s counter-attacking which caused a havoc. The Gunners were caught sleeping for all of United’s three strikes as the pacey front-three of Rashford, Sancho and Antony proved to be too hot to handle.
As Mikel Arteta went in search for answers after Arsenal were a goal down, he brought on three attackers in Smith Rowe, Vieira and Nketiah. On the other hand, Erik ten Hag opted for Fred and Casemiro who provided more firepower to United as they countered the North Londoners relentlessly. Talking about Arteta’s triple sub, player-turned pundit Gary Neville while speaking on Sky Sports said:
“At 2-1, there was no need to go so desperate, so early. With 20 minutes to go, I thought “this could be 4-1 or 5-1. United actually went more solid, Fred and Casemiro came on. And they just counter-attacked off the back of that. I don’t think they needed to go so desperate.
“What shocked Arsenal, was that second goal going in. It came against the run of play and Arsenal did not handle that point in the game well. They deserved to lose the game, because they never handled that second goal going in. Arsenal, if they kept on playing the way they were, they’d have got back into the game. As soon as they lost their shape with all those substitutions, United were always going to score that third on the counter-attack.”
Neville went on calling out Arsenal’s ‘naivety’, adding:
“Last year, Arsenal, that lack of maturity was the question. They showed in that last 20 minutes a lack of maturity, no doubt. I thought they were really good today. I like watching them, they’re better than last season. But against Tottenham last season near the end, they got played a little bit. In that last 20 minutes today, there was naivety.”
While the defeat may be a demoralising one for the Arsenal, it has certainly lifted the spirits at United who now have four wins in a row. They climbed up to the fifth place, three points behind the Gunners who still are atop of the table. Both sides will now kick-start their Europa League campaigns mid-week as United take on Real Sociedad at home while Arsenal are on the road to face FC Zurich.