Although Arsenal had an extremely impressive summer transfer window ahead of the 2022/23 season, it is highly unlikely anyone would have predicted they would be top of the Premier League on New Year's Day. Not only that Mikel Arteta's side are seven points clear of the nearest challengers, winning 14 of their 16 league games this season
A thrilling 4-2 win over Brighton saw the Gunners take advantage of Manchester City dropping points to Everton earlier in the day after Demarai Gray cancelled out Erling Haaland's opener. Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Eddie Nketiah and Gabriel Martinelli all found the back of the net, although Arsenal's performance was not without it's faults, with Kaoru Mitoma and Evan Ferguson both scoring for Brighton.
Nonetheless those three points placed the Gunners on a tally of 43 from a possible 48, with the defeat to Manchester United and draw with Southampton the only blemishes on their record this season. High up on the list of people least expecting Arsenal to challenge beyond achieving a top four place appears to be Gary Neville after his damning Arteta and Arsenal claim from ten months ago has resurfaced.
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In an edition of The Overlap podcast from March 2021, Neville gave his thoughts on Arteta and his chances of achieving a top four finish for the 2021/22 season. The former Manchester United defender went on to say that he loves the Spaniard but expected him to leave the club if he was able to secure a Champions League qualification spot.
"If he finished fourth, is that almost in some ways as good as he’s going to get," Neville said. "Pep? Klopp? United? Chelsea? Where can they go? Because they are not going to compete. United will deliver if they throw enough money on it.
"I worry about Mikel Arteta. I feel like he’s a brilliant coach. I love the idea that when I can see the team I can see the maximum is being achieved with those players.
"I can see exactly how he wants to play, but he gets to fourth, if he’s really hard about it he’d probably be like ‘right that’s the best I can do there, I’m going to do my next job’."
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