Gary Neville says that he "can't listen" to Arsenal fans complaining about their team's injury troubles as the Premier League title race heats up.
Star defender William Saliba 's absence has most recently dented the Gunners' title charge, with Arsenal failing to keep a clean sheet in the four games since he limped off during their Europa League last-16 defeat at home to Sporting Lisbon. Although Mikel Arteta 's side remain unbeaten, they've drawn their last two games and the absence of Saliba - who may not play again this season - is proving detrimental, especially since backup centre-back Takehiro Tomisayu is also out injured.
Having had striker Gabriel Jesus missing for four months earlier in the campaign and also seeing Oleksandr Zinchenko sidelined for periods, some Arsenal fans feel they've been particularly unfortunate with injuries. Neville, who's frequently annoyed Arsenal fans this season, isn't having any of it, feeling that Arteta and co don't have it worse than rivals Manchester City.
On Saliba's continued absence, the former Manchester United captain told Sky Sports : "It's a big blow, it obviously weakens them a lot when they don't have him at the back.
"Tomiyasu [being injured] as well is equally as bad because when you lose one, you wanna make sure that the guy that would've come in - either at centre-back or at right-back with Ben White moving in - but now obviously they're two down.
"It is causing them a problem but look, I cannot listen to that (complaints over injuries) because every team this season has lost players at certain times. City won the league three years ago against an unbelievable Liverpool team when Kevin De Bruyne was missing for quite a part of the season.
"[Ruben] Dias has been out this season, City have had lots of injuries, so for me I can't listen to the injury part, that was always going to happen, you were always gonna lose a player.
"They handled the injury of Jesus really well by [Eddie] Nketiah coming in. I thought that would be a big problem for them, so they've proven that they can handle it with other players missing, they just have to do better with Saliba out."
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One furious Arsenal fan responded to Neville's comments, saying: "Can't stand this pompous, blinkered mug." Another Gooner raged: "Salty guy at it again." A third, however, argued: "Strictly speaking, he's right, but the subtle lie here is that when you're competing against a sportswashing petro-club that's two-three strong players deep at every position, they're more injury-proof than you are."
Arsenal fans were also angered in March when United manager Erik ten Hag claimed: "I see Arsenal, they almost have all the time a squad that is totally available."
