Gary Neville on Arsenal’s Title Race Struggles

Gary Neville believes Arsenal have not helped themselves in the Premier League title race by losing composure and putting more mental pressure on themselves at times during the season. The Gunners had a much better campaign than expected, challenging for the title until recently, but have ultimately fallen short. Neville thinks there have been obvious downfalls, but also smaller issues even when Arsenal were winning that have cost them. He believes experienced players like Oleksandr Zinchenko and Granit Xhaka have made poor decisions in riling up emotion rather than remaining calm in the run-in, not helping their teammates deal with the pressure. Neville also pointed to over-celebrations against Aston Villa and Zinchenko celebrating an hour after the Bournemouth game, as well as Xhaka at Anfield and Thomas Partey losing his form, as examples of how the team has become very tough mentally. He concluded that Arsenal did not bottle the title race, but just weren’t strong enough in the face of Manchester City’s juggernaut.