Gary Neville criticised two Mikel Arteta signings after Arsenal’s hard-fought Premier League win over Newcastle United.
The Gunners regained their place at the top of the Premier League with a 1-0 win over Newcastle at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday.
Arsenal have endured a difficult run, losing back-to-back league games to give Manchester City major hope in the title race, but clinched an important three points against Newcastle courtesy of Eberechi Eze’s early goal.
The win sends Arsenal three points clear of Man City, who have a game in hand after pausing their Premier League title charge to beat Southampton in the FA Cup semi-finals this weekend.
Neville described Arsenal’s win over Newcastle as ‘exhausting’ and believes they will stumble to the Premier League title if they do indeed pip Man City.
The former Manchester United and England defender said Arsenal’s midfield was ‘outplayed’ by their Newcastle counterparts and highlighted Martin Zubimendi as an underperforming player in Arteta’s squad.
Zubimendi enjoyed a bright start to his Arsenal career following last summer’s £60m move from Real Sociedad but has ‘struggled’ during the run-in, according to Neville.
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Neville always had high hopes for fellow summer signing Viktor Gyokeres, who was dropped for the Newcastle win following some poor displays.
‘I thought at the start of the season that Zubimendi was a great signing,’ Neville said on his Sky Sports podcast.
‘He’s been a good player for Arsenal but right now I was expecting that this would be where Zubimendi would be the player. Who’s going to be the difference player?
‘I thought [Viktor] Gyokeres would get the goals for them in the big moments and get to 2-0. His lack of quality at the end was poor on that counter-attack. He’s got to do better than that.
‘But I thought… you think of what [Andrea] Pirlo is, or [Paul] Scholes or Rodri, Bernardo Silva – the player who can dictate play in a game like this, get Arsenal on the ball, organise and get them with authority and he [Zubimendi] is not demonstrating that.
‘He’s struggling in the games and he has been for a few weeks now. [Martin] Odegaard does it better.
‘Odegaard went deeper, but the problem is when Odegaard goes deeper, [Declan] Rice then goes deeper and Zubimendi is already deep. Then you’ve got three players, or certainly two in deep areas.
‘You can’t have that. You want them to be rotating with each other, and you want one back there to link play with the defence and the full-backs.
‘It felt to me today that Zubimendi, Rice and Odegaard got outplayed by that Newcastle midfield.’
Arsenal suffered a painful defeat to Premier League title rivals Manchester City last weekend but responded well to beat Newcastle.
Gunners star Declan Rice said: ‘I think we said after last week that we have to win five games if you want to win the Premier League.
‘That’s one down and now four to go. It was about winning no matter how we win. It is exciting times. There’s a lot to play for.
‘Always against Newcastle, it will be a really tough game, they have unbelievable players who can hurt you at any time.
‘We could have done better in front of goal in the second half, it opened up for us and it was just lacking that final pass.
‘But in the end, three points, a special goal from Ebs [Eberechi Eze] and that makes the weekend better so it is all good.’
Arsenal face Atletico Madrid in the semi-finals of the Champions League on Wednesday night before returning to Premier League action next Saturday against Fulham.
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