Manchester United legend Gary Neville says Arsenal players can finally say the Premier League title is “ours” this season if they “fight as hard as they can”.
The Gunners have been in good form so far this season, with Mikel Arteta’s side capitalizing on two blunders by Liverpool last week to move to the top of the Premier League.
Arsenal lost a five-point lead in the week with losses to Crystal Palace and Chelsea, but remain one point behind the defending Premier League champions.
The Gunners have invested heavily in their squad over the summer, bringing in eight new players, and will now be confident they have the strength to cope.
Neville is backing Arsenal to their first Premier League title since 2003, and he expects the Gunners dressing room to believe it too.
The Manchester United legend told the Overlap newspaper: “Roy[Keane]said last week that there are expectations for Arsenal because of the people. I don’t really know at this stage whether that will put pressure on them.”
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“I think if they are in the Arsenal dressing room now, even Mikel Arteta, they should open their eyes wide and say that the award is actually there now.
“I think for the first time, they might actually be sitting in that locker room thinking, “We have a long way to go, but the fact is, this is ours, and we have to come together and win.”
Fellow pundit Ian Wright believes it’s up to Arsenal’s spirit to make it through, after finishing runners-up in the Premier League for the past three seasons.
Wright added: “What we did last week was a reassurance to people that listen, we have a great chance to win the league.
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“I think we have the best team in the league at the moment. It’s up to the manager to bring in the right pieces at the right time.”
“We’ve seen some results where we thought he could have brought on another player to finish the game, but he still did his thing in bringing on players. We finished the game well against Newcastle. He was more positive and that’s exactly what we wanted.
“Because last year, when Liverpool failed, we didn’t take advantage of that. We didn’t take advantage of it. But when we did it against Newcastle, we made people realize that this is a step forward in what we’re trying to do and we showed that we’re definitely going to be in this fight as much as we can.”
“Now, when you talk about Arsenal, everyone says, ‘Oh, it’s Arsenal now’, because we’ve seen City and Liverpool go under.
“Arsenal are in control at the moment and you can see the mentality of the players here. They’ve been runners-up three times and they know what to do. They’ve been following City and Liverpool for the last few seasons. It’s their time now and it’s up to them to do it mentally.”
“There’s already a lot of excitement about winning and there’s no need to be afraid to say that. Arsenal are in a position to win.”
