Gary Neville brands Arsenal celebrations after win over Aston Villa as ‘too desperate and too emotional’

Gary Neville has claimed that he did not like seeing Arsenal’s celebrations after their dramatic win over Aston Villa.

Mikel Arteta’s men arrived at Villa Park on 18 February looking to get back to winning ways after three matches without a win, having lost to both Manchester City and Everton whilst drawing against Brentford.

However, Villa started the better side and took a 2-1 lead into the half-time interval courtesy of goals from Ollie Watkins and Philippe Coutinho.

In the second half, Arsenal drew level with half an hour to go, as the clock ticked towards the 90th minute, it looked like the points were going to be shared but the Gunners had other ideas.

A thunderous strike by Jorginho hit the bar and bounced into the back of the net off Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez before Gabriel Martinelli walked the ball into the back of the net to secure a massive 4-2 win.

The victory sparked huge celebrations from both players and fans, which Neville didn’t like.

He told The Overlap: “We have this little group on Sky. And obviously they know that I’ve nailed my colours to the mast that City are going to win the league and I’m getting a lot of stick from Arsenal fans. But after the Villa game, I got on the group: ‘unbelievable win for Arsenal’, and ‘unbelievable win for Arsenal’. And I replied it’s all too desperate. Too much emotion, too early. It’s interesting

“Emotion when you’re playing and you’re that desperate that much, and you’ve still got half the race to go almost, it’s not a good thing. You ordinarily don’t celebrate that hard. So after the Villa game, I can understand how big a moment it was. And I didn’t say this publicly, but that’s quite desperate, quite early.”

Alamy

Arsenal are now two points ahead of City at the top of the Premier League table.

Arteta is bidding to become the first man to win Arsenal the title after Arsene Wenger did so in the 03/04 season.

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