Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville has explained why Mikel Arteta could leave Arsenal this summer despite the recent progress at the club.
Arsenal are the favourites to secure the final top-four spot in the Premier League, sitting three points above Tottenham with ten matches left.
A top-four finish would represent a huge turnaround in north London given Arteta’s side sat bottom of the Premier League after losing their first three games of the campaign without scoring a goal.
But Neville believes this could be ‘as good as it gets’ for Arsenal and says Arteta may decide to leave this summer even if they finish fourth as the Gunners are ‘not going to compete’ with clubs like Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea.
‘I really like Mikel Arteta, I think he’s a brilliant coach. I think the team is fantastic in terms of the young players they’ve got,’ Neville said at a Sky Sports fan debate.
‘But it’s interesting when you’re in a cycle of a club and you depress the ambition and have a significant period of failure because you then get really happy about finishing fourth.
‘I found myself saying that about Manchester United. But it’s because of a depressed ambition.
‘I think Mikel Arteta is a good operator. My concern is if Arsenal finish fourth this season – which to be fair, I think is 50/50, I still think there’s a long way to in that race – but if they finish fourth, that’s in some ways as good as it gets.
‘You’ve got Pep [Guardiola], [Jurgen] Klopp, Man United, Chelsea, where can Arsenal go? They’re not going to compete.
‘Mikel Arteta is a brilliant coach, I love that we’re seeing a team that he’s getting the maximum out of, I can see exactly how he wants to play, we all can.
‘But he gets to fourth [and] if he was really hard about it, he’d probably say “right, that’s the best I can do there, I’m going now and getting my next job”.’
