Gary Neville says Arsenal players would’ve been so upset after seeing what Mikel Arteta did recently

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Mikel Arteta and his players share a very close bond at Arsenal.

The Spaniard has been at the helm for nearly six years now, and almost every player in the squad has been brought in by him.

No Arsenal player has ever had a bad thing to say about Arteta. In fact, everyone raves about his tactics and understanding of the game.

However, Gary Neville thinks Arsenal players would not have been happy with what their manager did ahead of the clash against Manchester City.

Gary Neville says Arsenal players would’ve been upset with Mikel Arteta’s decision

Arsenal drew 1-1 against Manchester City in their most recent Premier League game.

The Gunners were comfortably the better side at the Emirates – even Pep Guardiola, who parked the bus for the first time in his career, admitted that.

However, most of the criticism following that game has been directed towards Mikel Arteta by pundits like Neville.

Now, days after the game, Neville has had another go at the Arsenal manager and has gone as far as saying that his players would be upset with him too.

He said on the Stick to Football podcast: “The big thing for me is the players. He names that team on Friday afternoon or Thursday afternoon in training, and he leaves out Eze and leaves out Martinelli, and he puts Trossard in and Merino.

“I guarantee you that dressing room, straight away, will look at him thinking: ‘You’ve done the same again. You did it at Anfield, a little bit at Old Trafford, but certainly at Anfield, he could’ve been more attacking, and he wasn’t’. And certainly against City from the start, he could’ve been more attacking and wasn’t.

“He’s going to regret this if he doesn’t start to take the handbrake off. I’m going to repeat the comment ‘handbrake’ because he’s got players there that need to play in these games.”

Gary Neville doesn’t know what’s going on at Arsenal

There would’ve been a lot of factors influencing Arteta’s decisions against Manchester City.

Martin Odegaard’s absence is the biggest reason why Mikel Merino played, while Gabriel Martinelli hasn’t looked great at all in the games he has started this season.

Yes, the Brazilian scored and assisted in his previous cameo off the bench, but so did Leandro Trossard. The Belgian picked up an assist in the game before as well.

We would’ve loved to see Eze in place of Merino from the start, but to say things like the players wouldn’t have been happy or that Arteta would regret his decision without having a clue about what’s going on internally makes no sense.

Most Arsenal fans will continue to back Arteta, and Neville’s baseless theories should not be taken seriously by any supporter.