The Gunners have slipped to fourth in the table - five points behind leaders Liverpool - after back-to-back defeats to London rivals West Ham and Fulham. Aston Villa are two points ahead of them in second, while Manchester City are one spot further back.
City can pull three points clear of Arsenal if they win their game in hand, such is the problem facing Mikel Arteta. Yet Neville is refusing to "flip-flop" on his pre-season prediction that Arsenal will be champions and insists "they're not completely out it".
Neville and Jamie Carragher revisited their pre-season predictions on Sky Sports after Liverpool's 4-2 win against Newcastle on New Year's Day. Neville had backed Arsenal to finish ahead of City (second) and Manchester United (third) in the title race.
He thought current leaders Liverpool would make up the top four, with Chelsea in fifth and Aston Villa in sixth. As it's stands, United are seventh in the table - nine points behind Arsenal in fourth - while Chelsea are failing to gather any momentum in 10th.
Carragher also backed United to finish in top four and the pundits both laughed about that call on review. "We should be relieved of our duties for that," joked Carragher. Neville was then asked if he regretted backing Arsenal to win the title.
He replied: "I’m not going to change my prediction. I don’t think you can flip-flop a part of the way through the season. They’re not completely out of it, Arsenal.
Mikel Arteta's side are stuttering in their bid to become champions of England
"I’m a little bit disappointed with them, they’ll be disappointed with themselves and the Arsenal fans will be disappointed in these last two or three weeks because I think they’ve missed an opportunity to put themselves in a great position.
"Not where they would be in a position where you’d say they would win the league, but that four, five, six-point gap they should have with the games they’ve had in the last few weeks, they’ve just got to work it out. But they can come back, they can still win the league."
In fairness to Neville, he was criticised last season for tipping Arsenal to collapse when they were eight points clear of City at the top of the table. The Gunners did exactly that, winning just three of their final nine games to finish five points behind Pep Guardiola's side.
Yet Arsenal must start winning again soon if they're to turn the tide. They've got a quieter schedule in January thanks to the winter break, with just two Premier League games against Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest on the cards. They also have a third-round FA Cup clash against Liverpool on Sunday, but Arteta is expected to rest players.
0 Comments