‘Most ineffective’: Gary Neville slams 2 Arsenal ‘leaders’ vs Man City

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Gary Neville has singled out the Arsenal duo of Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli for being rather quiet in their side’s 4-1 defeat to Manchester City.

The pair have been unstoppable this season, as they recently became the only two players aged 21 since Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney for Manchester United to register 20+ goal contributions.

However, Gary Neville said that both Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli were not at the races for Arsenal in their potential title decider against Manchester City.

Neville says Saka & Martinelli were poor for Arsenal against Manchester City

Both Saka and Martinelli have been unplayable throughout the campaign, with many even calling them the best wing duo in the world.

On form, it has been hard to argue because both wonderkids have been phenomenal and have led the Gunners’ unexpected title challenge.

But when Manchester City taught Arsenal a footballing lesson on Wednesday, Gary Neville said both Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli were virtually anonymous.

“The two young lads on the night, who I think have been leaders this season, to be fair for Arsenal — Martinelli and Saka were probably the quietest and most ineffective we’ve seen all season. And what a time for that to happen”, he said on the Overlap YouTube channel.

HITC View: Young players cannot always be expected to turn up in big games

In all fairness to the electric widemen, they have been incredibly impressive in big games and have not shied away from having the power to define 90 minutes of football on a number of instances.

While Gary Neville is right in pinpointing that as Arsenal were taken apart by Manchester City, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli did not step up to the plate, they cannot always be expected to.

The experienced players in the side, who have largely been brilliant as well tailed off, especially in recent weeks; namely Thomas Partey, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus.

If the serial winners in the side look like shadows of their usual selves, it is unfair to bank on the youngsters at all times to dig their side out of a hole.