Mikel Arteta is at risk of proving Gary Neville’s prediction right from 2022 about his Arsenal tenure as the Spanish coach looks set for another season without silverware.
Arsenal currently find themselves 15 points off Premier League leaders Liverpool, out of both domestic cups and facing a daunting route to reach a potential Champions League Final.
Question marks have now started to creep in as to whether Arteta is capable of getting this Arsenal team over the line with his last and only trophy coming almost five years ago.
The Gunners’ boss will undoubtedly be given the time and tools to silence his critics, however, he is entering dangerous territory which the former Manchester United defender suggested may happen.
Gary Neville’s 2022 prediction about Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal peak being top four
Speaking back in 2022, Gary Neville suggested that taking Arsenal back into the Champions League would be the peak for Mikel Arteta at the Emirates Stadium.
The Gunners actually ended up missing out on the top that season, but the following year they significantly kicked on and pushed Manchester City all the way in the title race.
How far the North London club have come since then is undoubtedly top draw, although in terms of silverware, they have nothing tangible to show for their efforts.
The foundations the Spanish manager has built at the Emirates are incredible, but now, supporters are starting to demand more – they wanted trophies and Neville’s prediction is dangerously close to being proven correct.
Neville told The Overlap back in March 2022: “With Arsenal my point is, Mikel Arteta finishes fourth, which I think is 50/50, I think there’s a long way to go. If he finishes fourth, that’s almost in someway’s as good as it can probably get. That’s sad.
Then when asked if the achievement of finishing in the top four could be a stepping stone to bigger and better successes, Neville responded: “To what? Pep, Klopp, United, Chelsea, where can they go? They’re not going to compete.
“I’m just saying, Mikel Arteta is a brilliant coach, I love when I see a team that I can see the maximum is being achieved with those players, we can see exactly how he wants to play.
“But if he gets to fourth, if he was really hard about it, he’d say, ‘Alright, that’s the best I can do there, I’m going now to do my next job’.”
Jamie Carragher is now suggesting Arsenal have peaked under Mikel Arteta
Fast forward almost three years and Jamie Carragher has now suggested the same as he claimed on this week’s Monday Night Football: “We’ve probably seen peak Arsenal under Arteta”.
The Liverpool legend is concerned for Arteta that last season’s title push against Manchester City was the best it will be for him in North London.
Carragher said: “I do feel and I have been saying for a long time that we’ve seen peak Arsenal under Mikel Arteta. That doesn’t mean that they can’t win in the future.
“What I saw in the second-half of last season, I’m not sure it does get better than that. Can they do that over a full season?”
