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Gary Neville said he expected Arsenal to be «absolutely battered» by Manchester City on Wednesday after seeing Gunners players «in the tunnel» before the game.
Arsenal were comfortably beaten 4-1 at the Etihad earlier this week courtesy of goals from Kevin De Bruyne, John Stones and Erling Haaland.
It was the Citizens’ third 4-1 win in their last four Premier League games and made them heavy favorites to retain their Premier League crown.
Mikel Arteta’s side have been top of the table for the vast majority of the season but look set to lose out on the title with City performing at such a ridiculously high level.
The north Londoners are currently top, two points clear of the holders, who are two games down.
The momentum is also hugely in City’s favor and Wednesday’s impressive win was a clear sign that they will continue to go on and on with a historic treble in sight.
Arsenal are now winless in the league in their last four, having drawn three successive games before the trip to Manchester.
Two of those draws came after leading 2-0 with signs of fading under title pressure starting to build weeks before losing to City.
It was obviously a daunting encounter that Pep Guardiola’s side took by the scruff of the neck, and much of the post-match reaction was about how good they are, not how poor Arsenal were overnight.
The result may have come as a surprise to many considering how impressive the Gunners have been this season.
However, Manchester United legend Neville – who has never dreamed of Arsenal winning the title this season – has revealed that he predicted Arteta’s men would «concede four goals» at the Etihad.
Having seen the body language and faces of the players in the tunnel before kick-off, alarm bells were ringing in Neville’s head, and he changed his prediction of a ‘tight’ game into a comfortable City win .
«I think coming to Manchester City in a game like this, I think it justified potentially looking at the game differently,» Neville said on The Overlap.
“If you are conceding against Southampton, Bournemouth and West Ham, you will definitely concede against Manchester City.
“We have a group, don’t we? [him and Jamie Carragher]a group chat and honestly I saw them in the tunnel and said: ‘Arsenal will have to do very well here to not concede four’.
“Literally in the tunnel, you just thought, they’re going to be absolutely beat up. I didn’t think that really a week ago or a few days ago, I thought it was going to be tight.”
Arsenal won’t be back on action until next Tuesday when they host London rivals Chelsea.
The Blues have yet to avoid defeat since Frank Lampard returned to Stamford Bridge on 6 April.
Lampard supervised five matches, including both legs in the Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid.
Prior to that meeting at the Emirates, Manchester City are away to Fulham, meaning the Gunners could be runners-up at kick-off on Tuesday.
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