Neville picks four Arsenal players in his team of the season despite ‘mentality’ problem

Sarah Winterburn
Arsenal players in a huddle

Gary Neville has picked four Arsenal players in his team of the season despite zeroing in on their ‘mentality’ problem in the final weeks of the season.

Neville has been critical of the Gunners all season – and predicted several times that Manchester United would eventually finish above them in the Premier League – but included a quartet in his XI of the season while Jamie Carragher included only two in his line-up.

Neville had earlier highlighted a statistic that demonstrated just how quickly their season had fallen apart, saying on Sky Sports: “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.

“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.”

But now Neville has included William Saliba, Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli in his team of the season while Carragher included only Odegaard and Oleksandr Zinchenko.

Carragher eschewed tactics by including both Erling Haaland and Harry Kane – who has had a ridiculously good season – in his line-up, which obviously featured two Liverpool players despite their poor season.

“I actually think for the first time in probably three of four years, my team is better than his,” said Neville.

Carragher then claimed that his team would simply “batter” Neville’s with all their goals.

Arsenal Gary Neville