Gary Neville doubles down on "desperate" Arsenal trait after North London derby
Gary Neville once again hit out at Arsenal for over-celebrating during their enthralling 2-2 draw with Tottenham on Sunday.
The Gunners took the lead on two different occasions, firstly through a Cristian Romero own goal and then Bukayo Saka, only for Son Heung-min to hit back twice for Spurs. The South Korea international's second strike came just 27 seconds after Saka had restored Arsenal's advantage to spark wild celebrations.
And Neville, who was commentating on the game for Sky Sports, was of the opinion that Arsenal were caught cold after celebrating Saka's ice cool penalty too heavily. He said: “I don’t want to get caught up in an Arsenal over-celebrating thing and argument here but when that goal went in from Saka they all went to that corner.
“There’s a job to do, they had to concentrate and switch on and focus. They got caught straight away from kick-off. I don’t think it was the time to over celebrate in that corner. It was the time to get back to the halfway line and recognise that this game was far from finished.”
Neville previously spoke out on Arsenal's celebrations towards the business end of last season. The former Manchester United defender was convinced that there was "too much emotion" for the Gunners to win the title after branded their celebrations following a big comeback win over Aston Villa as "desperate".
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Speaking on The Overlap back in March, Neville said: “Arsenal have struggled in latter parts of seasons, with last season the most recent example of this. This is why Manchester City will win the Premier League; because when it gets to the last 10 games, Arsenal will start to panic a little bit, the anxiety will kick in, pressure builds.
“If Arsenal do it and win the league it will be an unbelievable achievement, but they haven’t been around the block like Manchester City. It’s too much emotion, too early for Arsenal. To be that desperate and to celebrate that much with half the race still to go, it’s not a good thing.
Join the debate! Do you agree with Neville? Let us know here.
Gary Neville believes Arsenal were guilty of over-celebrating during the North London derby (Sky Sports)“After the Aston Villa game, I can understand how big of a moment it was, but that level of celebration was quite desperate, quite early. There was a lot of celebrations at the end of the game. The emotions are something that’s a negative, it’s not a positive for me in a title race.”
Speaking after the final whistle on Sunday, Mikel Arteta made it clear he was disappointed with the manner of the goals Arsenal gave away. Spurs' second came when James Maddison pinched the ball from Jorginho in the Arsenal man's own half.
The Spaniard said: “We are very disappointed not to win the three points. Especially when you go twice in front. Especially the moment when we conceded the goals. We could have scored 2-0 in the situation with Gabi. We lacked some composure on the ball to get into the final third.”
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