There were several Arsenal players that caught the eye but it was Jorginho who impressed former English full-back Gary Neville the most.
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Arsenal might have conceded the top spot in the Premier League table to Manchester City, however, they have not lost their fighting spirit yet. The Gunners have done incredibly well to register a crucial 2-0 victory away at Newcastle United in the Premier League. There were several Arsenal players that caught the eye of the supporters and pundits but it was Jorginho who impressed former English full-back Gary Neville the most. The ex-Manchester United right-back compared Jorginho’s performance to that of Neville’s former teammate Paul Scholes.
Neville heaped praise on Jorginho but he started off by giving credit to Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta for his bold tactics. “The selection of Jorginho was critical. It was brave from Mikel Arteta, and the right decision; obviously he played him in midweek, but the easy thing would have been to look at the energy and physicality of Newcastle’s midfield and go and fight like for like with [Thomas] Partey. But that mentoring Arteta had off Pep Guardiola is probably to do the opposite. Twenty years ago, it wouldn’t even have been a consideration, you’d put your most physical players out. You’d get the ball and make sure in the first half an hour you dug in,” he told the Gary Neville Podcast.
Neville saw signs of similarity between Paul Scholes’ performances in the past to that eye-catching display from Jorginho against Newcastle. “But Arsenal passed their way. No-one passes brilliantly at Newcastle. They are a fantastic defensive team, but Jorginho was a massive difference. I say Paul Scholes is the best I’ve ever played with, and there was an example of what he used to do out on the pitch at Newcastle,” stated the former full-back.
He added: “In the most difficult atmospheres, in the most tense part of the season, against the most tenacious opposition, when it’s the most difficult and everyone else wants to lump it up the pitch, who’s going to get on the ball, take it when it’s tight, poke it through midfield, get yourself into an attacking shape so that you can actually set off your attacking patterns, and do that religiously and repetitively through those kind of games? At Manchester United, that man was Paul Scholes. He did it for 15 years.”
Gary Neville believed that Jorginho and Martin Odegaard were the key reasons behind Arsenal’s crucial victory at Newcastle. “What we saw from Jorginho at Newcastle was a class performance, a real class performance. Partey had shown some nerves and some edginess in the last few matches when the team needed composure, and I thought Jorginho demonstrated what you really do need when it’s really at its toughest. Arsenal were under significant pressure, I thought it was going to be far too much for them, and I thought Jorginho was the difference for them, along with Odegaard, the two players with the most technical ability in that team. The two in midfield, Odegaard and Jorginho, won that game for Arsenal,” he elaborated.
