Gary Neville claims Arsenal got “what they deserve” in failing to win the Premier League this season after two poor transfer windows.

Having fallen short of winning the title by a mere two points last season, many expected the Gunners to take the final steps in the 2024 summer transfer window to knock the indomitable Manchester City off their perch.

The Gunners fired blanks with Merino playing out of position as a striker, while Sterling started on the bench.

Now, Manchester United legend Neville has given his scathing assessment of Edu and Arteta when asked on The Overlap US by Rebecca Lowe whether the Spaniard should receive some ‘heat’ for Arsenal’s transfers – or lack thereof.

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The Sky Sports pundit said: “Yeah, I think losing Edu earlier in the season was strange, I don’t know whether that hampered their recruitment drive or not.

But they’ve left themselves woefully short and where I have little sympathy for them is that they’ve had two title races already.

They knew when they lost William Saliba that first season that they needed to buy defenders to make sure they didn’t leave themselves in that position again – and they did that last year.

“What they’ve now done is left themselves short in the centre forward position so it’s almost as if they’re always one step behind.

I think they’ve grown immeasurably in these last few years but they’ve become a little bit rigid in the last months.”

He added: “At the weekend [against West Ham] was a must win game and I always think it’s unforgivable in a title race if other teams are dropping points and you’re not there to put pressure on them.

After following up the loss to the Hammers with a 0-0 draw away at third-placed Nottingham Forest on Wednesday night – where they once again clearly lacked a clinical edge – while Liverpool secured big wins in the past week over Manchester City and Newcastle, the Gunners have been left a whopping 13 points behind Arne Slot’s team.

Arteta himself has not shied away from expressing his frustration at not signing a striker, even becoming visibly heated in January when a reporter suggested that not purchasing one was his own preference
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