"He’s going to regret this" - Gary Neville urges Mikel Arteta to change Arsenal tactics after Manchester City draw

Manchester United legend Gary Neville has criticized Mikel Arteta after Arsenal's draw against Manchester City last weekend. He claimed that the Spaniard could regret not changing his tactics later in the season.

The Gunners hosted Manchester City at the Emirates in the Premier League on Sunday, September 21. They failed to create much in the first half, as City led 1-0. Mikel Arteta then brought on Bukayo Saka and Eberechi Eze in the second half, which helped them edge out a late equalizer.

After the game, Neville had said that Arteta had put the "handbrakes" on this Arsenal team. The Spaniard expressed his surprise at the comment in a press conference. Now, on the latest episode of Stick To Football, the former Manchester United fullback said:

"I don’t think 60,000 or 70,000 fans can be wrong in how they feel and I don’t think any of us who were in the studio or in that stadium can be wrong either. The big thing for me is the players. He names that team on Friday afternoon or, let’s say, Thursday afternoon in training and he leaves out Eze and he leaves out Martinelli and he puts in Trossard and Merino."

Referencing Arsenal's 1-0 defeat against Liverpool earlier this season, Neville added:

"I guarantee you that dressing room, straight away, are looking at him and thinking, 'Hmm, you’ve done it the same again, you’ve done it at Anfield and a little bit at Old Trafford, but certainly at Anfield.' He could have been more attacking at Anfield and he wasn’t and certainly against City from the start he could have been more attacking."

The former England right-back added that Mikel Arteta might regret this move in terms of the Premier League title race, saying:

"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.

"You can’t look back at the end of the season and think, 'I’ve lost at Anfield, I’ve dropped points at home against City, I’ve dropped five points now in those two matches and I could have picked a more attacking team', and I think there’s a problem that’s starting to become a pattern for him."

Neville added that he had predicted Arsenal to win the league, but he wants Arteta to "dial it up".

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Mikel Arteta on Gary Neville's "handbrake" comment after Arsenal's draw against Manchester City

After the 1-1 draw against City, Mikel Arteta highlighted how their side had dominated Pep Guardiola's side for the entire game. He defended his side and said in a press conference (via Arsenal.com):

"So if the narrative goes somewhere else and we talk about dominance, about something else, how can you be dominant against such a team if you have a handbrake? Dominance and handbrake are two different words, but I accept everything. I will learn more to have a different vision."

When asked if he was frustrated by the "handbrake" comments, Arteta answered:

"No, I was just surprised because when I saw everything and watching it back and all the stats, I was surprised. But I respect everybody's opinion and if I can see and learn something that I haven't seen, I'm more than happy to do so. So that's never an issue. I don't think that one player makes that. When you see the behaviour of our team, if you're going to define that with one player playing one position, I understand a collective sport in a completely different way."

The Arsenal boss also said that Eberechi Eze potentially couldn't have played the entire 90 minutes against Manchester City due to workload management.