Gary Neville makes harsh Liverpool comparison ahead of Man City v Arsenal

Mikel Arteta is the only manager apart from Jurgen Klopp to challenge Manchester City’s dominance under Pep Guardiola, but he still hasn’t won the Premier League.

Liverpool are the only side to win the Premier League other than Manchester City since Guardiola first won the trophy in the 2017/18 season. Arsenal have come close in the last two campaigns but have finished five and two points behind City.

It looks as though Arsenal will be fighting with City at the top of the table again this season and Liverpool could be challengers too.

Mikel Arteta is now entering his fifth full season as manager of the Gunners and by this stage Klopp had already delivered a Champions League, a Premier League and a Club World Cup to Anfield.

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Neville’s Arsenal comparison

In the 20 September issue of The Overlap Newsletter, Gary Neville criticised Arsenal’s approach to playing City last season and said: “If Arsenal don’t win the league, history will forget them."

During the newsletter, Neville compares Arsenal to Liverpool, Guardiola’s only other real challenger, but pointed out that the difference between the two sides is that the Reds managed to get over the line.

Neville said Arsenal need to be braver than they were when facing City last season and said: “[Arsenal are] attempting to move a mountain. They’re trying to knock a cruise ship off its path in a speed boat. They’re Rocky in Russia, up against the perfectly-designed and superbly-trained champion boxer.”

The only man to beat this great Manchester City team to a Premier League title: Jurgen Klopp.

Liverpool’s title-winning season

Although the Reds became the quickest team to win the Premier League, winning the trophy with seven games to spare, they also became the first team to win the league in the month of June due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Klopp’s men finished the season on 99 points and had a huge 18-point gap to Manchester City.

Liverpool had finished only a point behind City the season before but were able to persist and finally bring the Premier League trophy to Anfield.

Arteta vs Klopp

Although they are the only two managers to seriously compete with Guardiola in the Premier League, there are some stark differences between the two coaches.

Klopp had nine transfer windows between him taking over as Liverpool boss and him winning the Premier League. In this time he had a net spend of €105.5 million.

Arteta has now had 10 transfer windows at Arsenal, in this time he has a net spend of €539.9 million and he is yet to win the Premier League.

Not only did Klopp win the league in less time than Arteta has had as Arsenal boss, he spent significantly less money in the process.

This season could finally be the year that Arteta gets his hands on the Premier League trophy, but Liverpool could also be right in the mix.