Arsenal secured a commanding 5-1 victory over Manchester City, but Gary Neville criticized Gabriel for celebrating in Erling Haaland's face. Neville deemed the action 'disrespectful', while praising Arsenal's performance.
Manchester United legend and Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville has criticized Arsenal defender Gabriel for what he perceived as 'disrespecting' Erling Haaland during Arsenal 's dominant 5-1 victory over Manchester City . The Gunners delivered a powerful statement to their Premier League title challengers, Liverpool, and inflicted a significant blow on Pep Guardiola's side at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
Arsenal took an early lead within two minutes, capitalizing on Manuel Akanji's error, allowing Martin Odegaard to find the back of the net past Ederson. The Gunners continued their electrifying start, seemingly scoring a second goal soon after, but it was disallowed for offside. Manchester City managed to equalize against the run of play shortly after halftime through Erling Haaland, who had previously clashed with several Arsenal players and manager Mikel Arteta in the reverse fixture. However, Arsenal swiftly regained the lead just a minute later with a deflected strike from Thomas Partey, before the impressive Myles Lewis-Skelly added a third goal, even mimicking one of Haaland's iconic celebrations in the process. Kai Havertz contributed a much-needed goal, further compounding the misery for Manchester City, who conceded again in injury time, with Ethan Nwaneri scoring the final goal, in a disappointing display for the reigning Premier League champions.The match saw Gabriel celebrating in Haaland's face after Arsenal's initial goal, seemingly a direct response to the Norwegian striker's actions during their previous encounter in September. Haaland had thrown the ball at Gabriel's head following John Stones' injury-time equalizer for Manchester City and had engaged in further clashes with Arsenal players after the final whistle, famously telling Arteta to 'stay humble'. While Arsenal's players could be understood for wanting to get revenge on Haaland, Neville believes Gabriel's actions were 'disrespectful' and that the incident left him feeling 'uneasy'. 'I want to mention Gabriel and what he did to Haaland,' the former Manchester United and England defender stated on his Sky Sports podcast. 'It happened to me actually at Highbury many, many years ago, and we actually won 4-2 that day. A player screamed in my face. I actually don't like it; I think it's a bit disrespectful. I get that Haaland was the pantomime villain here today, but there was something about it that I didn't like. Arsenal battered Manchester City at the Emirates Stadium. I was many things on a football pitch to be fair and 's*********y' was my game full stop. But I never did that. I never went and screamed in a player's face. I just didn't like that; it made me feel a little bit uneasy; it was a little bit disrespectful.' When asked about Lewis-Skelly mimicking Haaland's celebration, Guardiola responded in his post-match press conference: 'That’s good. Yeah, that’s good.' Assessing a humbling afternoon for his team, the Manchester City boss added: 'I only regret the last 25 minutes. We forgot to do what we should do, what we had done for 65 to 70 minutes. Of course, it's a difficult game in this stadium, against that team, conceding in the first minutes – it has happened many times this season. But, after 10 to 15 minutes, I think we took the game and played really good. We are in it after 1-1 and we had good momentum. We pass to make the transition with Omar and then comes a deflection and the third goal. But, after that, we then continued to do what you have to do defensively and we were a little bit more patient. When you're playing that way, they can run and, of course, at 3-1 they are comfortable so it is more difficult. I regret the last 15 to 20 minutes, but the rest was a really good game for our side. It’s difficult to understand when you see the result, but this is my feeling.
Arsenal Manchester City Erling Haaland Gabriel Gary Neville Premier League Mikel Arteta Celebration Football Controversy
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