'There was a lot to admire' | Arsenal spurn chance to go eight clear as Liverpool battle to draw

0:00Peter Drury:Hello everybody, it's the Gary Neville podcast from a stormy Emirates Stadium, or it certainly has been through the evening tonight. And we have watched together, Gary, a goalless draw between Arsenal and Liverpool, which I guess for sort of cerebral football fans, intellectuals who love the ins and outs of the tactical game, had actually quite a lot in it, even if it wasn't a thrill-a-minute game.

0:23Gary Neville:Yeah, I've become more tired of nil-nil games as I get older. I come to football matches and I start to think about the kid that's come for the first time. Dreams of seeing his team score goals or even the disappointment of conceding goals. But yeah, there was a lot about that game to admire, particularly from a Liverpool perspective. If you break it down into the segments of the match, I think before the game you thought Liverpool might struggle. I actually thought Gatpo would have played central and Virts to the left, but he didn't. Gatpo played to the left and Virts played more central. It just meant that Liverpool really had no punch up front.

1:03Gary Neville:And that was the thing that, in the end, meant that Liverpool didn't go on and win the game because they were the better team in the second half. But in that first 20 minutes, I thought Arsenal were really sharp. And just in this last couple of hours, obviously since last night, it feels like, about three months ago that City drew against Brighton. Yeah, it was last night, wasn't it? It just felt like there's a building today of sort of atmosphere, of feeling that this is it, Arsenal eight points clear, the day that they really cement their title charge and they don't just become favourites for the league, but they almost in some way start to think, we're going to do it.

1:39Gary Neville:And maybe that's just been in the players' heads a little bit all day, but they started really well in the first 20 minutes, really sharp play, got in behind Liverpool a couple of times didn't really create any big chances I don't think really got in the right positions when balls sometimes were going across the box I think Jokeres, maybe we'll have a discussion about him because I thought he was really poor tonight he played 60 odd minutes in the game just thought, come on be more of a battering ram be more of a thing, but yeah, first 20 minutes Arsenal I thought were really good I thought Liverpool's back line, like it was strewn across the back.

2:18Gary Neville:You couldn't even tell who the back four were. There were like six in there at times. And then the midfield, normally you see a line of four and a two or a five and a one or a three and a three. There wasn't. It was just like they were everywhere, but it was man-marking. They were packing the midfield and keeping it quite narrow. And by hook or by crook, they kept Arsenal out. And then all of a sudden there was a point, I think it was like 23 minutes in the game, where Liverpool had a little bit of possession for probably about a minute and a half. And they then got, I think, that Conor Bradley chance from it, didn't they?

2:49Gary Neville:And that's when the game just swung a little bit and the Arsenal fans just started to quieten down. And it never really got going again for Arsenal in the first half after that. And it sort of petered away to half-time and Liverpool grew in the game. The big transformation for me is what's happened from both dressing rooms at the end at half-time because I thought Arsenal would come out again. and Liverpool were just really, really good in the second half. It was a good performance, that. That wasn't just a good defensive performance in the second half. They actually kept the ball. They were authoritative.

3:22Gary Neville:And the only thing they liked was the goal, which, to be fair, I said at the end of the game, you're missing Salah, you're missing Eketike, you're missing Izak. You've got your three main players who have got real firepower. I mean, you're talking about three 15, 20 goals a season. In Salah's case, sometimes a lot more goals a season, strikers there. so yeah that's where Liverpool lacked some punch some sort of ruthlessness it was a really good night that for Liverpool other than the Connor Bradley injury at the end which maybe we'll talk about as well for different reasons not just the fact that the kid's injured it's a bad one for him but the way in which Martinelli handled it but Liverpool I think Arna Slott will come out and give a very very proud interview of how his team have played against the best team in the country right now they've dug in they've got through that first 20-25 minutes it was an old school away performance that tonight that just lacked that counter-attack goal that would have made it a perfect away performance

4:19Peter Drury:and perhaps if they had Ekotike or they had Salah or they had Isak it would be a different story and it makes me reflect because you remark on your disappointment with Jokerej tonight in the light of that big broad smile we saw from Benjamin Szczesko with Manchester United at Burnley last night a centre forward suddenly finding himself and coming to life. In the context of all that, the relevance and the sort of broader role of the centre-forward, particularly at a big-time club.

4:48Gary Neville:Yeah, I mean, look, we've become used to, at times, centre-forwards not getting involved in the game as much and not contributing as much in general play. But what they have to be is in the right position in the box. They have to be making those runs across the goalkeeper, across the near post. They have to make sure that they're charging in and sliding in the 6-yard box when that ball fires across. And he didn't do that bit. That's the bit I'm disappointed with him in. Yeah, if you're not doing that, you've got to then do the other bit, which is the ugly bit of going pressing and harassing and holding the ball up.

5:19Gary Neville:But I don't think he contributed anything really to the game tonight as a centre forward for Arsenal, Jokeres. And look, Arsenal have had seven players out on that pitch tonight who have not been able to unlock that Liverpool defence. And that's credit to Liverpool's defence. But I would have expected at some point in the game, Trossard, Jokerez, Saka, Erdegaard, Eze, Madweke, Martinelli, such an unbelievable firepower, you know, such incredible firepower within a sort of front part of the team. I would have expected one of them just to produce that little bit of magic. They had a lot more options than Liverpool up front.

5:58Gary Neville:but in the second half Liverpool just managed the game brilliantly on the ball and then the bits that Arsenal had to be fair weren't really that big the best chance was Gabriel's at the end ahead of which I think that was for him you just expect him to do better so yeah a challenging night for Arsenal maybe the expectation the tension of what's expected of them today with them coming here I just thought it was a big game today for Arsenal my feeling was eight points clear go and grab this title by the scruff and they're still in a great position but they just didn't quite put a performance together but massive credit to Liverpool because they dug in.

6:32Gary Neville:God they dug in tonight I have to say. They dug in more than I thought they were capable of. I thought that that resilience and that sort of what would be that ability to see out a game nil-nil and sort of keep a clean sheet. Even with 20 minutes to go I just thought Arsenal are going to go and get one here and it'll be a set piece or it'll be a moment of magic from someone or a little deflected goal and Liverpool will lose 1-0 and it'll be a disappointment. I think they'll go back tonight to Liverpool, really proud of those players. They'll be not celebrating because they've not won a game and some of them have won titles and won hundreds of games, but I think they'll feel like that was important what we did out there and I think it was important for their season.

7:10Gary Neville:They've obviously not been in amazing form, but they've actually had a decent run of results. I think that's the result tonight that they will be probably most pleased with amongst the others because it's a significant thing to play against this Arsenal team here and do what they did.

7:25Peter Drury:Yeah and you wanted to reflect too on Connor Bradley we don't obviously as we speak we don't know how bad the injury is it didn't look very nice I have to say that's really unfortunate because he was in a way he personified that digging in

7:38Gary Neville:He did and Kerkiaz who I've been critical of during this season for his way in which he settled into Liverpool team I thought he really stuck at it and was competitive and really sort of getting at Saka and sort of really aggressive in his defending lower and a bit more fierce so I thought he did well too and Conor Bradley I just think he's so graceful when he moves forward with the ball he travels with it with such smoothness and you know it looks fantastic and his defensive works pretty good as well and he had a good night as well Conor Bradley until that last part where you just feel like he needs that run of a season or two seasons three seasons of reliable good 7 and 8 out of 10 performances as a right back to establish himself beyond Trent Alexander-Arnold who was a sensational football player for Liverpool.

8:26Gary Neville:And tonight it just looked like a bad one. And then I think you summed it up perfectly. I was a little bit emotional in terms of, I think I called actually Martell an idiot, which maybe I shouldn't have done. But it was idiotic what he did. It was poor. You said it a lot better than I did and a lot more graceful than I did, which is not unusual, which was to read the room. He didn't read the room, Martell. It was really poor. It was almost disappointing to actually, you know, we all disappoint ourselves. We all let ourselves down on a football pitch and get carried away in moments. But that'll be one that I think Martinelli after, I think he'll head off into that changing room.

8:58Gary Neville:I think he'll go and see Connor Bradley and say, I'm really sorry, I should not have done that. You'll feel really crap after that, I think, if you've done that against a player who's been injured. So, yeah, he didn't read the room. It was a poor reaction. And maybe there's a little bit of sympathy in the sense that he probably thought Connor Bradley was going to edge back on the pitch. I think he actually did a little bit, didn't he, even though he was injured. But, you know, he threw the ball at him to start with and then he sort of pushes him off the pitch. and I'm surprised the Liverpool player didn't go up and really grab him by the scruff of the neck.

9:25Gary Neville:I'm looking at actually Roy Keane in my picture here. If that had happened to one of our players, I think he'd have been in full force.

9:35Peter Drury:Yeah, well, fortunately, I guess that didn't happen and peace broke out again. I know you were at Burnley last night, so I don't know how much of last night's football you've been able to see and digest, but obviously before Arsenal dropped points, Manchester City had dropped points and as far as I understand it, Their big dynamic at the moment is that Diaz is injured, Vardial is injured. We saw them get injured in the game at Chelsea at the weekend, which I suppose creates a new vulnerability for them.

10:02Gary Neville:Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we saw it in front of our eyes, didn't we, against Chelsea, that you sort of see Diaz and Vardial go off. And it gives you encouragement because the players that are coming on and that back four doesn't look stable. It's not. and last night it's not a game that I imagine millions of people will have watched the Brighton versus Manchester City game but a little bit of a silent killer for them in the sense that you felt as though the Sunderland one, you can probably understand it Chelsea was a bad one for them conceding in the last minute you could see the disappointment couldn't you in the crowd and on the face of the players and Pep Guardiola at the end of that one but to then drop points at home against Brighton when they're already sort of dropping points, they're already sort of drifting away from them, or Arsenal are sort of drifting away from them.

10:53Gary Neville:Yeah, that will have been a real gut-wrencher. And it just leaves City in a position right now where they really do have to think about how they hang in there for March-April. Because there's no doubt that you get to March-April and you are four or five points off Arsenal, there will be real pressure applied by us, by everybody, by the situation, by the Premier League title looming. So, yeah, they've got to try and hang in there and not be out of it. I don't think they will be, but they're going to have to do something defensive, whether it's in the transfer market or get players back quickly, because the more they play with that back four, the more they're going to drop points.

11:29Yeah.

11:29Peter Drury:A word on Chelsea. Obviously, again, we saw them at the weekend, tumultuous week. They had their new coach watching them at Fulham last night and they had Kukareya sent off and it appears to have cost them the points. where are you with their sort of ongoing melodrama?

11:46Gary Neville:I don't know really I mean it's an interesting one Liam Rossini coming in and really interesting appointment from a point of view of you know we know where it's come from obviously from the multi-club model but a real surprise I think to many if you just said three or four months ago that Liam Rossini would be manager of Chelsea it came out of nowhere obviously Maresca's gone and it'll be really interesting to see what happens in the next few months because it's a tough football club that one. I mean, look, the big clubs are tough if it's not going well. If results aren't right, then there is a lot of scrutiny and pressure comes on managers and on players and I think that's going to be interesting to see how it plays out in these next few weeks.

12:26Gary Neville:They need a couple of good results in January.

12:30Peter Drury:This is going to be a shorter one because you have to be in our studio in a second but I wanted to end on this and I hope this is OK because we haven't planned it But the Newcastle 4-3 last night, the reports I've read of it were very much in the context of the very sad news about Kevin Keegan's illness. That was a Kevin Keegan 4-3 win, wasn't it? Which I thought was a really, really beautiful thing. And Eddie Howe expressed himself very well on that topic. And I know, of course, he was your international manager. And you might have a word or two to say about that.

12:59Gary Neville:Yeah, he was a great man, Kevin Keegan. and I always remember thinking of sort of the qualities of Kevin when he was the England manager, about his honesty, his integrity, his enthusiasm every single day on the training pitch about how he wanted players to enjoy themselves and get the very best out of themselves and go forward and play with excitement and thrill. And then you just think, you know, the Glenn Hoddle sort of had the really good tactical mind and if you could combine the two of them, I remember at the time thinking you had almost like the perfect manager, but Kevin Keegan was a great man manager he made players happy he made players excited he made players enthused on the training pitch to think that go and play football almost like he felt like he was still the kid that played in the playground as a 7, 8 year old it never left him he always wanted to join in and be part of the training session with the lads and be with the boys if you like and that's how he was as a manager and that's how his teams played at Newcastle they were exciting, so exciting and we had some right battles with them and great games.

14:02Gary Neville:I know that Liverpool game obviously is famous, the Liverpool games that they've had, the 4-3s, 4-4s. But we had some fantastic battles against them as well. So, yeah, I wish him all the best. And, yeah, Eddie Howe. Look, there's still something about Newcastle not having the greatest of seasons, but I've still got a lot of love for Newcastle in terms of just what they are. I think they're a good side. I like watching them play. And it wouldn't rule out them going on a run because there are a lot of teams trying to find their feet still. There are a lot of teams well below the standard, well below par, not hitting anything like their straps that they should be.

14:38Gary Neville:And Newcastle have got a lot of quality. They just need to make sure they keep that best 11 on the pitch and see what happens.

14:45Peter Drury:Yeah, actually, the middle of the table, Gary, since you mentioned it, from Brentford in fifth to Bournemouth in 15th is covered by seven points. So that race for potentially even Champions League, Certainly, Europe is great.

14:57Gary Neville:It's up there for grabs. I mean, you watch United last night. They've had, I think, six opportunities, it feels like, in the last sort of like three weeks to go into the top four, top five. I mean, they've missed every single opportunity to do it, but that's how scruffy this league is right now. I mean, it's as if you can sort of drop points, draw games, lose a game, and still not be really out of sort of contention for where you want to be. It's like almost like everyone's stuck in the mud. It's incredible, really. everyone's in the same boat it feels like apart from a couple of teams who are doing well

15:30Peter Drury:OK and finally then Gary Manchester United you saw them at Turf Moor last night which was in itself a really entertaining game as a United person would you come out of that feeling better about yourself or not?

15:44Gary Neville:I don't know I mean look I think you said part way through tonight that it's 50 games it's the end of a monstrous run of Christmas fixtures in 19 days and it's been a tiring 19 days as a Manchester United fan. I know that obviously I'm not going to name some of the games now that are within that period because some of them started before but it just feels like when I reflected today, this morning coming down here and I've done I think six or seven of United's last nine matches and two or three of the games I really like but when you think they've played Everton with ten men, Wolves, Leeds, Burnley, Bournemouth, and one more, West Ham.

16:27Gary Neville:A lot of those teams are losing, apart from Leeds, a lot of those teams are losing a lot of football matches and playing really poorly. And at this moment, the inferior teams in the Premier League, I think Manchester United have picked up five points out of 18 possible points against those teams. And West Ham Wolves, Burnley, Bournemouth have been losing a lot of matches to every other team. it's been such a missed opportunity such a missed opportunity and the loss of a manager during that period and I remember still on the touchline before the Everton game which was the first in that run I know that obviously Crystal Palace Newcastle and Villa have been in there as well so there's been nine games the other six that I've mentioned are the ones that I would have expected Manchester United to get a lot of points in and I remember looking at the fixture list and thinking Manchester United could be going into the new year I fancy them to be in the top three or four if they can pick up 12 points 14 points out of those 18 they'll be right up there because the other teams are not doing well they're struggling, they've got tougher runs they're not in good form and yeah I just feel really disappointed just generally about the whole of that period and obviously they say a manager loses his job, it's the worst thing that can happen in a football club because the reality of it is you know then there's a failure across the board everyone's got to take responsibility for it so yeah I don't feel great about last night in the sense that ultimately I just look at it upon it as the end of a period of games and what's happened to Ruben Amirim and look last night I think United deserved to win, I think they were the better team but you'd expect that, they were playing against Burnley who haven't won a game and can't win a game hardly and I thought it was a good night for Cesco, I thought in the first half that he got into some good positions in between centre forwards but in between centre backs and it didn't quite happen for him and he was a bit frustrated on the ball I thought the ball kept bouncing off him when it was played into him but he had two magnificent finishes and he needed that, he really did need that and he had a big smile on his face and look, I've never played centre-forward for Manchester United but I do know that I've seen centre-forwards come to the club and not score for a period and now that really weighs on their mind and it sort of got the pressure on them and the prize tag and he's young so let's hope from here on in that he can really just hit a run of games where he can score some goals Bruno Fernandes coming back I think was really important.

18:50Gary Neville:Him going off, I think that was probably decided before the game that he could only do 60 minutes, but the game did swing a little bit after that. Yeah, a couple of disappointing goals to give away. They need Maguire and De Ligt back and see whether that really can provide some sort of solidity at the back. Need, obviously, Mbamo and Ahmad back as well. So there's players to come back. It's not all doom and gloom, but just a really disappointing, tiring period that ends with still with them in with a chance. qualifying for the Champions League this season if they can put a run together but they've got an FA Cup game and then I think they've got Manchester City and then Arsenal so two tough games coming up which actually they beat Newcastle did well against Villa won at Crystal Palace away and then the six games that I've mentioned there, the ones that they've let themselves down in so crazy really

19:40Peter Drury:and since we're coming to Cup weekend especially since they don't have Europe a tasty Cup run could light a bit of a fire on the Manchester United season, couldn't it?

19:49Gary Neville:Yeah, I mean, look, I think if you can win a trophy in a season where you're not doing brilliantly well or you're in a transition and you're not going to win the league, which quite clearly not, I would never say that's a bad season when you win a trophy. I think it's about the direction of the club. It's about the progression on the pitch. It's about the plan and where it's going. And I think that's what needs to be put into place. And it does look like that's going to be put off again for another four or five months, doesn't it? in the sense that it does look like all roads are pointing towards a temporary manager coming in, which I don't disagree with because if they can get a Ancelotti or a Tuchel at the end of the season, a manager of that ilk or that stature, then you'd wait for them.

20:31Gary Neville:You would wait for them and you'd take the risk of having an interim manager who's going to try and get you over the line and get you into Europe for the rest of this season. But they have to make sure that I think they get that type of manager at the end of the season if they're going to wait. because the risk of obviously putting an interim in has, it may have looked like they've done it twice in the last, what if it is, 10, 12 years. It's worked with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, it didn't work with Ranić. So probably why they're talking to Ole again, probably why they're talking to Michael Carrick, Rude van Nistelrooy as well has been mentioned.

21:00Gary Neville:So it'll be interesting to see which one of those they go for. And there'll be a level of emotion with those players coming back in. And I just hope there is some stability towards the end of the season that allows a new manager to come in, because it's been disappointing. It has. It really has.

21:15Peter Drury:OK, well, 2026 lies ahead to cheer them and everybody else up. Thank you, Gary.