Gary Neville has explained why he has now ruled one of Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal out of this season\u2019s Premier League title race after a dramatic weekend saw injury-time goals affect both the defending champions and the Gunners, and with Paul Merson\u2019s somewhat extravagant claim proving true.<\/p>\n
When the new season got underway, Neville<\/a> ran the rule over six would-be title contenders, deciding that Liverpool, Arsenal and Man City would once again battle it out for glory and insisting that the likes of Chelsea, Newcastle and Aston Villa would not be able to mount a charge.<\/p>\n \u201cBetween Liverpool, Arsenal and Man City, all of them have got cases to win the\u00a0Premier League,\u201d Neville said on his Sky Sports podcast back in August.<\/p>\n \u201cAll equal cases as well, I don\u2019t think you can look at any of the three and think they\u2019re definitely above the others.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAll three of those teams have got genuine cases. Liverpool may be slight favourites, but I don\u2019t think any club will be completely confident to win the league, even though they all have a great chance.\u00a0It\u2019s really close, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n Six games into the new season, that table has now started to take a familiar shape, with Liverpool<\/a> first and Arsenal now second.<\/p>\n A decisive weekend, though, so the fate of the race change dramatically with Arsenal<\/a> scoring an injury-time winner to win at Newcastle, while Arne Slot\u2019s side lost their 100% start after conceding in added-time to lose 2-1 at Crystal Palace \u2013 now the Premier League\u2019s only unbeaten side.<\/p>\n And while Man City also claimed a win \u2013 an expected 5-1 triumph against Burnley \u2013 Neville no longer thinks Pep Guardiola\u2019s side, currently seventh \u2013 are in the mix, naming Arsenal as having the best squad in the league.<\/p>\n \u201cMikel Arteta has got a brilliant squad. He\u2019s got a brilliant squad, I think he\u2019s got the best squad in the league and maybe the best team in the league and I say that quietly because Liverpool are excellent,\u201d Neville said after their 2-1 win at St James\u2019 Park.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s only two teams that can win this league \u2013 Liverpool and Arsenal \u2013 I don\u2019t think anyone else can.\u201d<\/p>\n DON\u2019T MISS<\/strong>\u00a0Mikel Arteta hails \u2018tremendous\u2019 Arsenal as \u2018dramatic\u2019 win over Newcastle boosts title hopes<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Neville thinks he can \u2018smell something\u2019 with Arsenal as Merson stance hits home<\/strong><\/p>\n Neville then said of the jubilant scenes at full-time on the Gary Neville podcast<\/a>: \u201cRightly, they should be celebrating! It was absolute bedlam up there. You know there\u2019s nothing better than seeing a last-minute winner unless it\u2019s against your team.<\/p>\n \u201cBut seeing the Arsenal players at the end obviously celebrating and the Arsenal fans up there, that felt big. I think when the first goal went in, you can sort of smell something. A lot of big questions have been asked of Arsenal in this last week, but rightly so. And he [Arteta] has changed today.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019ll play it down, Mikel Arteta, you\u2019ll hear him say, \u2018we\u2019ve not done anything differently\u2019. But his team selection at the start of the game was more positive. His substitutions were everything he could have thrown at the game.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re going to come off a football pitch, make sure you\u2019ve used all your weapons. Make sure you\u2019ve used everything in your armoury. And he did that.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, even at 1-1, my message, I was thinking about if it stays 1-1, I would have been praiseworthy of Arsenal. I would have said that they\u2019ve done everything they possibly can. The manager made the right decisions. He makes the right substitutions, but it\u2019s just not quite come for them.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the reason you get the winner at the end is because of the intent. I said last week, we\u2019ve got to stop looking at what Mikel Arteta says or what managers say and look at what they do.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, if they say they\u2019re going to go for it, they want to win the league, they think they can win the league, they believe they should win every single match, then let your substitutions tell us that. Let your team selection tell us that.\u201d<\/p>\n Neville\u2019s claims feel all the more pertinent after Merson reasoned that the title race would have been over had Liverpool won at Selhurst Park and if Arsenal had suffered defeat on Tyneside.<\/p>\n In the build-up to the weekend\u2019s games, Merson stated:\u00a0\u201cI said last week that Arsenal need four points in the next two games to be favourites for the league title,\u201d he wrote in his column for\u00a0Sportskeeda<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, they got one at home to City and now they go to Newcastle.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Arsenal return to winning ways this weekend, we will look back on that point against Manchester City as a good one. But I fear for them if the exact opposite happens at Newcastle. Only time will tell.<\/p>\n \u201cShould Liverpool win at Selhurst Park, they will go eight points clear of Arsenal before the Gunners play Newcastle away from home.<\/p>\n \u201cSo if Liverpool win this game and Arsenal lose on Sunday, the title race is over, finished! I know it sounds crazy and Arsenal have good fixtures coming up, but eight points between them will be too much.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were all choosing between Liverpool and Arsenal at the start of the season.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd if anyone was on the fence back then and I told them Liverpool would have an eight-point head start, no one would have backed Arsenal for the title!\u201d<\/p>\n Merson added:\u00a0\u201cArsenal have a good run of fixtures coming up after this game. But if you don\u2019t beat Newcastle, you are basically entering that run with an eight-point lead to chase down.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re a team in the title race, you don\u2019t want to be playing catch-up when the easy fixtures come along, you want to use them to get away from other contenders and kick on instead!\u201d<\/p>\n Arsenal pair reveal thoughts on St James\u2019 Park drama<\/strong><\/p>\n Speaking after the game, Arsenal winger Bukayo Saka was overjoyed with the result, despite admitting frustration at some of the officiating in the game.<\/p>\n \u201cUnbelievable, nothing better than a late winner in football. Speechless, I\u2019m so happy,\u201d Saka said<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are a few things we can speak about, for example the penalty. For me if we have VAR it is for a clear and obvious error, and the fact that it took the ref that long to decide shows it is not a clear and obvious error.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is things like this that always go against us, but today we got what we deserved, and that\u2019s why we are all so happy. It doesn\u2019t matter now, does it?\u201d<\/p>\n The Arsenal star who scored the crucial equaliser, Merino, said he and his teammates are \u2018confident\u2019 of their title chances.<\/p>\n \u201cWinning the way we won today shows the character of the team, how much we trust each other, how confident we are,\u201d Merino said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat doesn\u2019t change, no matter the result. We are confident we have an amazing team, an amazing squad, amazing staff and amazing fans, so we are ready for it.\u201d<\/p>\n