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Gary Neville has suggested Arsenal may have been forced into making a transfer mistake by Mikel Arteta that looks to have played a part in the Gunners missing out on the Premier League title to Liverpool.

The race to take Manchester City’s crown looks to be drawing to an inevitable finish now after the Reds extended their lead at the top of the table on Wednesday.

That’s despite the former Manchester United defender predicting before the start of the season that the Reds wouldn’t even make the top four.

Neville has been critical of Arsenal recently for not signing a new striker, despite clearly needing one.

It was noticeable that, despite his lack of options up front, Arteta still decided against starting Raheem Sterling at the City Ground.

The former Liverpool and Manchester City forward was signed by the Gunners on loan from Chelsea last summer, but he hasn’t had much of an effect, having scored just once in 21 appearances this season.

Speaking on the Stick to Football podcast with Sky Bet, Neville suggested Arteta may have forced Arsenal into a signing they never wanted to make.

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In the last part of the summer transfer window, I’m not sure Arsenal wanted to sign Raheem Sterling,” Neville said.

“I’m not sure Arsenal, as a club, wanted him

He can play across the frontline so Arteta has looked at him as his second or third striker.

“They’ve ended up backing him and I think that’s put them off doing another deal in January of the same ilk because they’re thinking we brought Sterling in and Arteta hasn’t really used him.”

Liverpool.com says: Sterling’s signing has been a bit of a disaster for Arsenal
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