Neville tells Arteta the change he must make for Arsenal's clash with Man City (original) (raw)

Gary Neville has backed Mikel Arteta to largely stick by the same players, urging him to make just the one change for their trip to Manchester City next weekend

Gary Neville believes Arsenal should continue using a small pool of players

Gary Neville believes Declan Rice's return should be Mikel Arteta's only change to the Arsenal XI as he cited the positive sense of stability within the team.

Rice was missing for the north London derby on Sunday with Jorginho needing to come in to fill the void. The Italian was a solid performer as Arsenal won on the road - which is the beginning of a huge week that sees them play in the Champions League and visit Manchester City.

Arsenal are expecting to be without Martin Odegaard, who picked up an injury on international duty which has sidelined him. Neville has urged Arteta against making wholesale changes with the return of his usual midfield anchor the only tweak he should consider.

He said on the Gary Neville Podcast : "I think he [Rice] will come in just for Jorginho and then leave it as it is. I think Trossard did well in that role – the number 10 – so I don’t think he’ll change that. I think he’ll keep it simple. I don’t think Mikel Arteta is doing anything nowadays that is surprising us and I say that in a positive sense and a complimentary sense.

"He’s got such confidence in his own team and how they play he doesn’t need to try and think of fancy different systems or shocking anybody with the team selection. He’s got stability. When you’ve got stability and an 11 that works together well and you can just change one or two then there is no need to do anything clever."

Arsenal have largely enjoyed success with the same starting XI as a huge chunk of their players are called upon to play almost every game. They've been forced into changes and the midweek fixture may well force tweaks when they head to Manchester.

Wins at the Etihad have been hard to come by in recent years but a loss would put them five points behind the champions after just five games. Neville has hinted as changes in the forward line to ease the burden on some of the players, but believes Arteta will use a small pool of individuals.

Declan Rice will return after his suspension

"You can trust the 12 or 13 players that are his best players," added the Sky Sports pundit. "He might bring in [Gabriel] Jesus and [Raheem] Sterling on Thursday night but I don’t think he will be doing mass rotation.

"You can’t afford to do that and I don’t think you should do that. You have to trust that these players are capable physically of handling a Sunday-Thursday-Sunday [schedule]."

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