Gary Neville and Roy Keane have both taken issue with Pep Guardiola’s assessment of Declan Rice. The Arsenal midfielder was caught by Sky Sports cameras declaring “it’s not done” following Manchester City’s triumph over the Gunners in a crucial Premier League title encounter last Sunday, with victory over Burnley on Wednesday propelling them to the summit of the table.
Prior to that match, Guardiola was questioned about the Rice footage and the City manager confessed he admired it as it demonstrated Arsenal‘s robust mentality and explained why they are challenging for the title. Neville and Keane however, interpreted it vastly differently.
The former stated on the latest instalment of Stick to Football: “Pep said he loved the Declan Rice clip saying ‘it’s not done’, do you think Declan was in control when he was saying that or was it just emotion and hope?”
Ian Wright responded: “Whatever he was feeling at the time, if I’m the opposition watching that, I’d be thinking ‘they’re not done and he’s their main guy'”. Keane interrupted “No no wow.”
Neville, in agreement with his former Manchester United colleague added: “No, if I was watching Declan Rice nearly in tears, and saying it’s not done, I’d be thinking you’re done. ‘It’s not done, It’s not done.’ I look at him and think he’s done.”
Wright clarified: “This is what I’m trying explain, if Pep shows them that, the Man City players will be saying ‘we’ve got them’.”
Neville then remarked: “It’s a good response, I’m just saying I didn’t feel confident- I’m a big fan of his and I said potentially last week that he would grip that game.” Keane brutally interjected: “And did he? Did he?” Neville, in response to that, said: “No I thought Bernardo Silva and Rodri got a grip of that game.”
Keane finished off the exchange stating: “Exactly, exactly. You have to win that middle of the park battle.”
Guardiola did offer a detailed verdict on why he was such a big fan of Rice’s comment despite a second successive defeat in the Premier League. He told Sky Sports: “I saw it [on Monday] and it shows what Declan Rice means. That’s the Arsenal mentality, we’ve faced it in the Premier League these [past] seasons and in the Carabao Cup, how competitive they are.”
“Otherwise they can’t have done the season they have done in the Premier League being there and being unbeaten in the Champions League, as you have Mikel [Arteta] but also these type of players that follow the message.”
“And in the bad moments, they have the resilience [to say] we are there, we are there. That is a good example for us what we’re going to face in the six games, five games [for them] in the title race.”