7 months ago
188 Gary Neville has now admitted that he’s noticed a big difference between Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta and Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp.
It certainly felt as if last weekend would be a big one in terms of indicating who would win the Premier League this season, but in truth we didn’t learn an awful lot.
Mikel Arteta will obviously be delighted with the improvement his side showed defensively in comparison to their 4-1 loss at the Etihad last season, but may still be lamenting some missed opportunities.
Of course, Liverpool avoided any similar regret when coming from behind against Brighton & Hove Albion earlier in the day.
And although he was nowhere near as clinical as he can be, Mohamed Salah delivered a reminder of just how much he’s been missed in recent weeks.
Liverpool’s star man eventually provided reason to celebrate on Sunday, securing the three points.
And when speaking on The Overlap today, Gary Neville thought there was still one key difference in how Mikel Arteta and Jurgen Klopp manage their emotions during a game and after winning.
Gary Neville thinks Jurgen Klopp is proving his experience in comparison to Mikel Arteta
Speaking on the podcast, Neville thought Arteta was getting the balance right with his celebrations at Arsenal this year, but still thought Klopp’s experience was telling.
He explained: “The way I would look at it is let’s say you equalise in the last minute of a game. If Man United, going back 20 years, equalised in a game we wouldn’t celebrate.
“We would go and get the ball and run back to the half way line. If we then won a game in the last minute we would celebrate and go crazy but at the end of the game we would stay controlled because the job isn’t done.
“So there is an element of are you in control of your emotions? And it’s a feeling sometimes. I to be fair this season have not had a problem with Arsenal’s celebrations.
“I had an issue last year where I felt there was a lack of emotional control before the run in, where you beat Bournemouth and it was like you were lifting the trophy and that feeling of emotional control was lost a little bit.
“This year I think Arsenal have got the balance just right. What Klopp has got is that ability to celebrate at the end of the match because he is experienced, he’s a winner and he’s in control.
“Whereas Arteta and Arsenal sometimes demonstrate that they are on the edge of control and it’s wild. I could see that massive wobble at the end last season, it was so obvious. This season don’t do that.”
Could it make the difference in the title race?
Although Neville’s focus on celebrations may seem trivial to some, he’s right to point out that Arteta needed to be more like Klopp at Liverpool, he needed to be more of a ‘cold hard’ winner.
Perhaps that is oddly best demonstrated by his decision to replace Aaron Ramsdale with David Raya this season.
Ramsdale is an excellent goalkeeper, a blockbuster type, but drama always followed his performances, even if it was for positive reasons 90% of the time.
And Arteta seemed to recognise that, realising his Arsenal side needed to find a way to win regularly without showing so much emotion – given they eventually lost steam last season.
And that’s not to say that Raya isn’t passionate, but he exudes a different kind of energy.
All that being said, Gary Lineker recently shared his prediction on who will win the league this season.
The post 'It's wild': Gary Neville has noticed one big difference between Mikel Arteta and Jurgen Klopp appeared first on TBR Football.
