EPL: Neville Highlights Arsenal's One Key Concern – "You Could Never Replace Him"

Table of Contents

• Neville's Concern for Arsenal
• Match Summary
• Impact of Injuries
• Importance of Declan Rice

Manchester United icon, Gary Neville, has identified a single concern for manager Mikel Arteta regarding the Arsenal squad.

On Sunday, Arsenal established a six-point lead in the Premier League table by defeating Tottenham Hotspur 4-1 in the north London derby.

Leandro Trossard started the scoring for the Gunners, while Ebere Eze scored a hat-trick at the Emirates.

This season, Arsenal has shown remarkable form despite facing injuries to key players including Gabriel Magalhães, Martin Ødegaard, Viktor Gyökeres, Kai Havertz, and Gabriel Jesus.

However, Neville believes there is one indispensable player, and an injury to him could jeopardize their outstanding season.

He remarked that an injury to Declan Rice could be detrimental for Arsenal, as the England midfielder offers a distinct skill set to the team.

“The interesting thing is they’ve got [Riccardo] Calafiori and [Jurrien] Timber at full-back. Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ben White might be better offensively, although there’s not much difference between White and Timber,” he stated on The Gary Neville Podcast.

“They have genuine options at full-back and solid choices at centre-back.

“The only player you would be concerned about losing for an extended period is Declan Rice because you cannot replace him.

“He’s your Roy Keane, he’s your Rodri—the player who keeps everything together. There’s only one like him.

“You would never find a substitute for his strength on set-pieces, his running, his tackling, and his influence on the game moving forward.”