Jeff Stelling’s decision to stay with Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday programme has been met with a hugely positive reaction and the popular broadcaster proved why, after leaving his colleagues in hysterics with a hilarious dig aimed at Gary Neville involving Mikel Arteta.
Arteta’s first two seasons at Arsenal were blighted by poor form and fallouts with players such as Mesut Ozil. But after spending £150million last summer, the 39-year-old has assembled a squad that appears to be capable of challenging for a top-four finish.
The Arsenal manager was the subject of high praise from Neville after engineering a major turnaround in the club’s fortunes, having described Arsenal as "boring" only 18 months ago. And the Manchester United legend turned pundit has made a complete U-turn on his views regarding the Gunners coach, suggesting he may have reached his ceiling with the north London club.
Speaking on The Overlap Live, he said: ”I really like Mikel Arteta, I think he’s a brilliant coach. I think the team is fantastic in terms of the young players they’ve got. Arteta's a good operator. My concern is if Arsenal finish fourth this season – which to be fair, I think is 50/50, I still think there’s a long way to in that race – but if they finish fourth, that’s in some ways as good as it gets.
“You’ve got Pep [Guardiola], [Jurgen] Klopp, Man United, Chelsea, where can Arsenal go? They’re not going to compete. Mikel Arteta is a brilliant coach, I love that we’re seeing a team that he’s getting the maximum out of.
"I can see exactly how he wants to play, we all can. But he gets to fourth [and] if he was really hard about it, he’d probably say “right, that’s the best I can do there, I’m going now and getting my next job."
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