Gary Neville says two Arsenal stars are 'never where they should be'

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Gary Neville has hit out at Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal for being too ‘rigid’ in possession this season and claims both Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus are ‘never where they should be’ in the attacking areas.

Arsenal have managed just one win in their last three matches in the Premier League, leaving the club sit six points adrift of top-of-the-table Liverpool, who have a game in hand over their title rivals.

The Gunners appeared to be cruising towards a comfortable victory at home to Aston Villa last Saturday, but were forced to settle for a point after surrendering a two-goal lead in front of a shell-shocked Emirates crowd.

Arteta’s men will look to get back to winning ways at home to Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League this evening before returning to top-flight action away to Wolves this weekend.

A hamstring strain meant William Saliba missed Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with Villa and the central defender is expected to be sidelined for at least the next fortnight with the injury.

Analysing Arsenal’s worrying form on The Overlap’s It’s Called Soccer podcast, Neville said he felt Saliba ‘would have dealt’ with both of Villa’s goals had he been on the pitch in north London.

But Neville believes Arsenal must find ways to combat the absence of key players like Saliba if they are to challenge for trophies in the second half of the campaign.

‘I’ve got Arsenal for the league, I have done all season, but they’re disappointing me. I asked the question last week, “Should we be disappointed with Arsenal?”… I’m disappointed,’ the former Manchester United and England right-back said.

‘They’ve dropped so many points, not just on Saturday in the game against Villa. To be fair, they had that game won and they should have sealed it up.

‘Look, when Saliba doesn’t play it can’t fall off the edge a cliff. The two crosses that go into the box, I think Saliba would have dealt with them. But they’ve spent a lot of money and Timber is a good centre-half, Partey is an experienced player.

‘Liverpool have had [Joe] Gomez at centre-back, they’ve had [Ibrahima] Konate at centre-back, they’ve had [Jarell] Quansah at centre-back. When their main partners aren’t there, I know [Virgil] van Dijk’s outstanding, but the other guy comes in and does a job.’

Neville suggested Arsenal had become overly ‘obsessed’ with set-pieces before taking aim at the positioning of the club’s attacking options, including Havertz and Jesus.

‘I think they’ve become so obsessed with set-pieces. I don’t know how much they’re practicing them, I don’t know how much emphasis there is on them in training,’ Neville added.

‘There’s two things about Arsenal: it’s the methodology of the set-pieces which is brilliant in the sense that they’ve scored a lot of goals from them so well done, but I feel like they’ve become reliant and obsessive about them. Secondly, I think their recycling of the ball is among the best in the league.

‘However, I always used to think when we played, recycle the ball at 2-0 up and keep the ball and try to draw the other team out. I think they’ve become so rigid in possession that they’ve almost lost that ability to take risks, for players to go and beat players in inside positions.

‘The front three do combine but I don’t see them combine as a front three should. I sometimes see that the distances between them are too big.

‘The centre-forward, whether it’s Jesus or Havertz, sometimes are never where they should be. Sometimes they’re never where they should be. That’s not always but they like to drift and wander.’

Neville went as far as saying Arsenal’s play in the final third had become ‘inhibited’ and ‘formulaic’ with Arteta at the helm.

He continued: ‘They’ve become so rigid. You get the ball into Havertz or somebody in midfield and they end up coming back, turning towards their own goal and recycling it. They don’t get on the half turn and pop it through.

‘It’s inhibited, it’s so formulaic. They go out wide and then you see it come back out again and out the other side.

‘They’ve got a beautiful way of playing from box to box, no problems, but you’ve got to have risk, you’ve got to have innovation, you’ve got to be creative and you’ve to take chances in the final third.

‘I get the fact that we’ve gone through this Pep Guardiola period where wide players get it and they’re not supposed to give it away, they don’t take risks and they give it back.

‘They’ve got to get to that point whereby they push more balls through in central areas, try and make more through passes and they need more runners in behind without the ball.’

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