Arsenal were slammed by Gary Neville just minutes into their crucial Premier League showdown against Manchester City – only for City to end up making the same mistake but even worse. The incident that left the co-commentator irate saw Gunners goalkeeper David Raya nearly surrender possession inside his own box. Speaking on Sky Sports, he reacted: “That could not happen for Arsenal, what the hell are you playing at?
“The one thing that you would say Arsenal cannot do in the first five or ten minutes is play a stupid little pass along their six-yard box and they have gone and done it.” Almost within the very same attack, Rayan Cherki watched his deflected effort cannon off the post and across the goalline. It was Gabriel Magalhaes who made the crucial touch to stop him shot going in, with claims of handball raised, though penalty appeals were dismissed and the incident subsequently cleared by VAR.
Neville added: “It’s been cleared. He just sort of leans down doesn’t he, Gabriel. Maybe it’s a shoulder, it’s not easy to see what part of the arm/shoulder it is. It’s high up, you can see why they’ve waved it on.”
Arsenal recovered impressively from their shaky opening but fell behind after 16 minutes when Cherki netted a stunning solo goal. Yet similar to the mistake Arsenal made, City allowed their opponents straight back into the match because of a daft error from Gianluigi Donnarumma a mere two minutes later.
Kai Havertz capitalised on Donnarumma’s hesitancy to clear the ball swiftly after Matheus Nunes threw the ball directly to his keeper. The Frenchman took a touch instead of clearing the ball first time and Havertz’s block ended up deflecting the ball into the far corner of an empty net. Neville reacted with a trademark “OOOOOHHH!” and then added: “This is what we wanted.
“Cherki’s brilliance is cancelled out. He’s pressed him into the back of his own net! Arsenal have just answered a question. Have they got the guts? Have they got the courage to come here and do something? They have.”
City and Arsenal went into the half-time interval locked at 1-1 at the Etihad, with Arsenal good value after a solid first-half performance. Neville continued: “[Pep Guardiola] fired his team up at Chelsea last week. He fired them up in the cup final at half-time as well. Arteta will be prepared for that, I’m sure. He’ll be relatively happy with this first half.”