Gary Neville Felt Arsenal Would Peak at Fourth Under Mikel Arteta
It’s been a good week for Arsenal, with the Gunners securing their place in the 2026 Carabao Cup final with a 4-2 aggregate victory over Chelsea. Mikel Arteta’s men also won in the Premier League, while title rivals Manchester City and Aston Villa dropped points.
There is still a long way to go in the 2025/26 season, but the north London side have every chance of winning a major trophy for the first time since 2020, when Arteta led Arsenal to an FA Cup triumph in his first season in charge. Whatever happens, it’s clear that, with the Spaniard in charge, the Gunners have been on an upward trajectory for some time now.
With this progress in mind, it is interesting that some of Gary Neville’s thoughts on Arteta’s 2022-declared Arsenal ceiling have resurfaced this week.
Neville claimed Arteta could do no better than fourth at Arsenal
In April of the 2021/22 Premier League season, after finishing eighth in the previous campaign, Arsenal were clearly heading in the right direction. The Gunners were fifth at the time, and that’s where they would finish – narrowly missing out on a Champions League place.
Speaking on Sky Sports The Overlap, Neville praised Arteta, calling him a “brilliant manager”, but expressed major doubts over his long-term prospects in north London. The pundit claimed Arsenal could only dream of finishing fourth under the Spaniard and would not be able to do better than that.
He even went as far as to say that Arteta would be better off leaving Arsenal if he wanted to achieve more in his career. In full, he said: “I really like Mikel Arteta, I think he’s a brilliant manager. I think the team is fantastic in terms of the young players they have. But it’s interesting when you’re in the cycle of a club and you depress ambition and you have a significant period of failure because then you’re very happy to finish fourth.
“I found myself saying that about Manchester United, but it’s because of depressed ambition.
“I think Mikel Arteta is a good operator. What worries me is that if Arsenal finish fourth this season – which, to be honest, I think it’s 50/50, I still think there’s a long way to go in this race – but if they finish fourth, that’s in some ways as good as it gets.
“You have Pep (Guardiola), (Jurgen) Klopp, Man United, Chelsea – where can Arsenal go? They are not going to compete.
“Mikel Arteta is a brilliant manager. I like the fact that we are seeing a team that he gets the best out of – I can see exactly how he wants to play, we all can.
“But he comes fourth (and) if he was really tough about it he would probably say ‘that’s right, this is the best I can do there, I’m going there now and finding my next job’.”
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Neville felt Man Utd were better placed to succeed than Arsenal
Following Arsenal’s recent progress to the League Cup final, as they sit top of the Premier League, having also finished top of the Champions League championship stage, the clip has since resurfaced on social media, causing a major stir.
Although Arsenal’s detractors will point out that Arteta has not been able to add to his trophy haul since the Neville quotes, it certainly can’t be argued that his ceiling with the Gunners hasn’t been better than fourth place. In fact, after finishing fifth in 2022, the team has come second in every Premier League season.
It’s also worth noting that Neville insists Manchester United will “recover” and have a better chance of competing in the league than Arsenal, but the Red Devils have not finished above the Gunners in the competition since 2020/21.
Arteta has had many doubters over the years, although former Everton teammate Tim Cahill backed him in 2020 when another former Man Utd star, Roy Keane, was also dismissive of his potential. Ultimately, however, it will be up to the Spaniard to finally silence his critics by leading Arsenal to glory – perhaps 2026 will be his year.