Arsenal looked like they would get “absolutely battered” by Manchester City as soon as they stepped into the tunnel, Gary Neville has claimed.
The former defender has revealed his prediction of a four-goal collapse immediately before the Gunners were beaten 4-1 at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday night.
“We have a group chat and honestly, I saw them in the tunnel,” he told The Overlap.
“And I said Arsenal are going to have to do very well here not to concede four. Literally, in the tunnel you just thought they are going to get absolutely battered.
“I didn’t think that a week ago, or a few days ago, I thought it was going to be tight.”
Aside from Arsenal’s lack of preparedness mentally for the game, Neville explained why Mikel Arteta’s tactical refusal to tighten the defence played a role in the defeat.
Many teams go to City and park the bus, and the pundit was left confused by how open the Gunners left themselves.
“I didn’t see any plan from Arsenal during the game to make it more difficult and to stop them,” he said.
“If you get to 30 minutes and haven’t conceded, would that have been a massive backwards step if he’d have done that, Mikel Arteta?”
