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Gary Neville has taken yet another shot at Liverpool, having insisted that four of Arsenal’s players are all better than Arne Slot’s options in the same positions.
The Reds will be looking to narrow the gap to their rivals as they take on Brentford on Saturday, with Mikel Arteta’s side not facing Crystal Palace until Sunday.
Having held a five-point advantage over Arsenal just a few weeks ago, Liverpool now finds itself four points behind the Gunners, having lost its last three Premier League games to Palace, Chelsea, and Manchester United, with Neville taking particular pleasure in the latter result at Anfield.
The former United captain has never been shy about showing his true colors when it comes to discussing Liverpool - and more often than not, ending up with egg on his face as he’s gone on to be proven wrong.
That never stops him from airing his opinions though, and he was back at it during the latest episode of The Overlap’s Stick to Football.
Giving his thoughts on Arsenal’s strengths, Neville pointed to the Gunners’ options at full-back and insisted they are all better than Liverpool’s current options of Conor Bradley and Jeremie Frimpong at right-back, and Milos Kerkez and Andy Robertson at left-back.
“When I was watching Arsenal vs Atletico, I was watching [Myles] Lewis-Skelly,” Neville began.
“Obviously Jurrien Timber played, you’ve got Ben White and [Riccardo] Calafiori. I thought all Arsenal’s full-backs are better than Liverpool’s, all four of them - that’s a big problem for Liverpool. Timber is the best full-back in the league at the moment.”
Going on to heap more praise on Timber, Neville said: “I think Timber is almost, in my mind, I would class as being… do you know the guy that plays for Real Madrid? [Dani] Carvajal.
“For me, he’s the best. And I think Timber’s the nearest to him at the moment, I see, in terms of being able to do that bit and do that bit, do the forward bit well enough, but definitely cuts everything off down his side.”
Liverpool.com says: Well that’s yet another big shout from Neville. At the moment, you understand why he would say that, given Liverpool’s full-backs have not started the season well.
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But it still feels early to be making grand statements like that. It wasn’t that long ago that people were questioning Arteta for being too defensive, and effectively playing four center-backs across his back line.
Bar Lewis-Skelly, there isn’t too much attacking flair from Arsenal’s full-backs, and that could pose its own problem further down the line, especially if Liverpool manages to claw back that four-point gap.
It hasn’t been a great start for the Reds’ options, but Robertson’s class has been clear for years, while Bradley has already shown he could become a top-class right-back. Hopefully Frimpong and Kerkez will improve - the latter made the team of the year last season, so he should be right up there with the best once he finds his feet.
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