Gary Neville has criticised Arsenal going into our match against his former club Manchester United, accusing us of not respecting our opponents enough.

The pundit has previously slated Wenger for not changing up his game plan for each individual match, branding him as arrogant, and although my initial reaction is to snap to the manager’s defence, he has a point.

Arsenal continuously fail to read the game certain teams will play against us. We play more or less the same way against every team and the problem is, when most teams have cottoned on to how to beat you, they’ll exploit this.

First Team Coach Gary Neville of England gestures during an England training
ENFIELD, ENGLAND – MARCH 26: First Team Coach Gary Neville of England gestures during an England training session ahead of the Euro 2016 qualifier against Lithuania at Enfield Training Centre on March 26, 2015 in Enfield, England. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

Speaking ahead of the match, Neville said, “[Arsenal] don’t prepare for a big game like it’s a big game. I used the words arrogance and naivety earlier in the season.

“They prepare for a big game like they’re going out to play a game of football in the park.”

He continued, “What about attention to detail? What about respecting your opposition whereby you might have to change something yourself? i think they go out thinking about wonderful passing, how they’re going to nutmeg someone or score a great goal.

“I never see anything different with Arsenal. It’s a wonderfully pure theory around football; it’s fantastic morals and principles but if it doesn’t work you have to challenge it.

“The week that they’ve had, losing in Europe, puts a little bit more pressure on them being at home.” 

Teams now know that if they pressure us high enough up the pitch, stop us from passing within the final third and generally keep our star players, such as Ozil and Alexis, quiet, they can beat us. It’s up to us to get around this and change things up if we have any hope of being taken seriously.