Neville labels Arsenal ‘desperate’ as key stat illustrates ‘mentality’ problem under Arteta

Gary Neville labelled Arsenal’s end-of-season form “desperate” as he used a stat to illustrate a “mentality” problem he believes the Gunners have under Mikel Arteta.

Manchester City ended up cruising to the Premier League title after Arsenal’s untimely drop in fom which saw them draw with Liverpool, West Ham and Southampton before losing to the eventual champions and Brighton at the Emirates.

Their 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest on Saturday gifted City the title without kicking a ball and Neville claims Arteta has a job to do to alter the “mentality” at the Emirates, which has cost them in the last two seasons.

“You have to be exceptional to beat City. Arsenal were on target for 100 points. It’s a desperate run in for Arsenal, no one would have imagined Arsenal would drop these points,” Neville said on Sky Sports Monday Night Football.

“If Arsenal had picked up their necessary points that they would have done in the early parts of the season, the City pressure was enormous, and the title run in is enormous pressure, they would still be level or even a point or two in front if they’d done their jobs just in those games against the teams at the bottom of the table, Brighton at home as well.

“When you look at the context of how poor a run in it is for Arsenal, we know last season they had the top four in their grasp and went on a really bad run towards the end of the season.

“I looked this morning at this graphic, this shows Arsenal have the lowest collection of points of any team in Premier League history in the last ten games that they have finished in the top three.

“It just tells you what Mikel Arteta is going to have to shift. It’s a mentality thing in the final part of the season, it’s an experience thing that in the last two seasons in the real two moments, they’ve not been able to handle that in the last ten games of both seasons.

“If they’d have got those ten games in both seasons they’d have been in the Champions League last season and they potentially could have been champions this time.”

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