Gary Neville tells Arsenal fans to stop making ‘excuses’ and makes prediction for Liverpool clash

Gary Neville has told Arsenal fans to stop making ‘excuses’ about the club’s injured players and absentees ahead of their Premier League clash with Liverpool.

The Gunners trail top-of-the-table Liverpool by four points following a shock 2-0 defeat away to Bournemouth last time out.

Mikel Arteta has been forced to cope with a number of injury problems at this early stage of the campaign, with Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Riccardo Calafiori, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Jurrien Timber all struggling for fitness.

Sunday’s hosts will also be without central defender William Saliba, who is serving a one-match suspension after his sending off on the south coast last weekend.

Liverpool have had a relatively clean bill of health by comparison, though Alisson, Diogo Jota, Conor Bradley and Federico Chiesa and Diogo Jota will all be missing at the Emirates.

‘Every club has injuries, every club has players missing,’ ex-Manchester United and England right-back Neville said on The Overlap US.

‘I accept that they might not like the idea as Saka and Odegaard are obviously very big players and Saliba is obviously out with the self-inflicted red card. But I’m not accepting any excuses ahead of Sunday.

‘I’m expecting Arsenal, who finished above Liverpool last season, we’re eight games in, to basically go out onto that pitch thinking they’re going to win that game. That’s what I’m expecting.

‘They’ve got to change their mentality from a team that are coming second – and they’re a really good side, they’ve made great strides – to a team that are going to win the league.

‘They cannot do anything other than go and win that football match.’

According to Neville, Arteta should have ‘expected’ to have important players missing across the campaign and it is up to the Arsenal manager to step up to the challenge.

‘Liverpool are in really good form, they’ve got a strong defence, they’ve got players up front who can win any match in a moment and they’ve got a midfield who are so willing it’s untrue so it’s not going to be easy,’ he added.

‘But go and win the game. I cannot listen to excuses, I don’t want any excuses from Arsenal fans, I don’t want any excuses from Mikel Arteta.

‘He’s built a squad there that should be able to compete over a season. Four or five players being missing is something that he would have expected or should have expected at a certain point.

‘Last year, it was all season that he had it consistent with his team selection and that’s very fortunate. It might not be quite like that this season.

‘Go and win the league. I remember times when we had four or five players missing and we played Phil Neville and John O’Shea in midfield and I was centre-back. That just happens.

‘You’ve got to get through those moments if you’re going to win the league. City are doing it at the moment without Kevin De Bruyne, without Kyle Walker. They’ve had other players missing for periods of the season.

‘I’m sorry, I really am steadfast on this. You should have beaten Bournemouth with ten men and they should go and beat Liverpool on Sunday if they’re serious about winning the league.’

Neville cannot see Liverpool opening up a seven-point lead over Arsenal and predicts a narrow win for the home team in two days’ time.

‘I’m going to go Arsenal 2-1 because I don’t see Liverpool going seven points clear of them,’ he responded when asked for a prediction.

‘My instinct is I don’t see on Sunday evening the league table saying Liverpool 24 points and Arsenal 17, that’s my instinct.

‘In my experience of when I’ve seen these games in the past and I’m going not just off my instinct today, I think sometimes when you have these games and you go, “Manchester United can go seven points clear of Arsenal in 1998”, it doesn’t tend to happen.

‘The motivation of the team that are desperately not wanting to go seven behind, it gives them that edge that the team that are four points in front don’t quite have at this time of the year.’

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