Nev: Let’s see what Arsenal are made of | Liverpool have ‘overachieved’

On a dramatic Super Sunday where Arsenal and Liverpool’s title challenges were significantly dented, Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville says the Gunners must show what they are made of against Bayern Munich – and feels Jurgen Klopp’s side have “overachieved” this season.

Manchester City ultimately proved the big winners on Sunday after Liverpool were beaten 1-0 at home by Crystal Palace before Aston Villa scored twice in the second half to win 2-0 at Arsenal.

City are two points clear of both their title rivals at the summit, and Neville admits it now looks “ominous” for Arsenal and Liverpool with six Premier League games left to go this season.

“It was a really bad day (for Arsenal and Liverpool),” Neville said on the Gary Neville Podcast.

“It can happen, you can lose football matches, but you’re up against perfection. And when Liverpool had City at Anfield, and when Arsenal I felt had City at a potential weak point in that game at the Etihad, I just feel they needed to win to move the mountain, because you can always lose a game.

“I’m really surprised by Liverpool at home to Palace, I’m really surprised, although they have had a difficult week. The game for Arsenal was a lot more difficult and they played with a really good performance level in the first half.

“But it feels a little ominous, it feels a little inevitable that the Manchester City, Pep Guardiola machine rises to the top with a few games left. They are going to be very, very difficult to stop – that’s an understatement.

“It’s a painful one for Arsenal. I don’t know how they recover. It’s a big question mark as to how they recover before Wednesday now (and the Champions League second leg away in Munich). I’m not saying they won’t, and I hope they can because it is a cup competition. But the Allianz is a fierce place and they will be heading into it a little bit down.

“But this is what I wanted to see. I wanted to see Arsenal 12 months on, we wanted to see Arsenal with Saliba in the team, with Havertz and Rice, their big-money signings in the team, and they are still there. Now we will see what this Arsenal is and what they are made of. Because they are made of a lot stronger stuff than last season.

‘Arsenal are not out of the title race’

“You have to trust them (to recover from this). They have to call upon last season’s experiences – they weren’t in the Champions League last season, but they were in this position where they would get beaten in games that they thought they would win.

“They dropped points that people didn’t think they would, and now it is about how you get back on the bike because they are not out of the title race. It’s going to be tough because of Manchester City and what they are but it is how they recover.

“You can finish second to this Manchester City team but it is about how you finish second. Last season we know how they finished second. This season, if they finish second or even third if Liverpool somehow get up there as well, then they have got to make sure they do it in a better way. Now it’s about how they get back on the bike and how they recover in the games and the weeks to come. They’ve got to prove that to themselves.

“I’m intrigued, now I want to see how they react. They were always going to lose a game, they may even go out of the Champions League against Bayern in midweek. They may, but then how are you the following weekend, how are you in the north London derby? Big weeks ahead for Arsenal, lots to look at and lots to be interested in. It’s all eyes on them in the next week or two.”

Neville: ‘Monumental’ Klopp has overachieved this season

Defeat at home to Crystal Palace caps a dismal week for Liverpool after they were beaten 3-0 by Atalanta in their Europa League quarter-final first leg at Anfield three days earlier.

But despite some disappointing recent results, which also included a nail-biting FA Cup defeat to Manchester United, Neville thinks Klopp and his Liverpool side have done well this season.

“If you look at Liverpool, no one expected Liverpool to be anywhere near,” Neville said.

“If you said that Liverpool would be two points off Manchester City with five or six games left to go, I’d be like ‘no chance’.

“This is a monumental achievement I think for Jurgen Klopp, for them to be where they are. I said it before the international break and a few Liverpool fans had a go at me, but I felt like they were hanging on. I just felt like they were hanging on for dear life with emotion, with it being Klopp’s last season.

“And then when they went out of the FA Cup to Manchester United, there was this narrative that now the FA Cup has gone, now we can concentrate on Europe and the league, and after the Europa League result, now we can concentrate on the league.

“It’s not happening like that, but I still think Jurgen Klopp is getting the very best out of this Liverpool team and this Liverpool squad – and what we are now seeing is probably what they are, and they have overachieved to this point.

“I think Arsenal have looked really smooth in the last couple of months and City have started to look really smooth as they always do. Whereas with Liverpool, you felt they were always the scruffy one of the three, yet they were hanging in there, calling upon the emotion of the Anfield crowd and Jurgen Klopp’s last season. Calling upon other things, other factors.

‘Reality-check’ for Liverpool

“The last few weeks have become a little tough for them but this is more than par for Liverpool where they are. I think this is par for Arsenal, this is where we thought they would be after the large investment but I don’t think anybody expected them to be so close to City at this stage of the season.

“It was a bad day for them and maybe a bit of a reality check. The FA Cup has gone, maybe Europe has gone and now maybe the Premier League title has gone – and Jurgen Klopp’s last season is going to potentially end up with the Carabao Cup.

“But they are only two points behind City and they are likely only to be concentrating on the Premier League. And they can be dangerous because they have got that something in them, Klopp has got something in him that can garner a response.

“They have been the ones that have beaten City in the last five or six years. They are still in it, but there is just a feeling that they are careering along the road a little bit.”

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