“I have got very little sympathy for Arsenal” - Gary Neville rips into Gunners amid ongoing injury crisis 

Manchester United legend Gary Neville questioned Arsenal's recruitment amidst their injury concerns. He said that they should've signed someone in January and added that he has no sympathy for them.

The Gunners are currently dealing with injury issues in attack. Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus have both been ruled for the remainder of the season. Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli are also injured and a few weeks away from returning.

When asked about Arsenal's injury issues on The Gary Neville Podcast, Neville had no sympathy for the Gunners. After Tottenham Hotspur's 1-0 win over Manchester United on Sunday, he said (via Goal):

“They’re going to have to come up with something. Look, I said before the game [between Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United], I have got very little sympathy for Arsenal, they knew at the start of the season that they were short at centre-forward.

"They knew that they might be… you know, if [Kai] Havertz got injured and they knew were in a position where they didn’t have the quality up top so they’ve known about it. They’ve also had two title races so they know what it’s like. So, this is not like an inexperienced team anymore, this is not an inexperienced manager and it’s not an inexperienced situation for them to be in."

While Havertz got injured last week, others got injured during or before the winter transfer window. Hence, Neville pointed out that the Gunners knew this situation could arise, adding:

"So, I always say, ultimately, did you know that this could have happened before the start of the season? Yeah, could it have been foreseen? Yes, it could, we knew that Arsenal lack goals up top and a top centre-forward.

"I’m not saying they should go and desperately buy one but they knew in the January transfer window that there was an issue there, again, they couldn’t get any business done."

The north London side currently have Raheem Sterling, Leandro Trossard, and Ethan Nwaneri as their attacking options.

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Mikel Arteta on using Mikel Merino as striker after Arsenal's win over Leicester City

The Gunners visited the King Power Stadium on Saturday, February 15, to face Leicester City in the Premier League. They have Leandro Trossard up front with Raheem Sterling on the left and Ethan Nwaneri on the right. However, they failed to break the deadlock as Mikel Arteta replaced Sterling with Mikel Merino, pushing Trossard to the left.

The midfielder scored a six-minute brace playing as a striker to help his side seal the win. After the game, Arteta was asked if Merino could be a permanent solution as a striker for the rest of the season. He answered (via Arsenal.com):

"We’re going to have to share that, we know that. We’re going to have various contexts; sometimes we’re going to have to make a sub because a player isn’t performing, or because the opposition is doing something else, or because someone’s a yellow card, or it’s fatigue, that’s going to restrict what we do really in terms of the personnel.

"We have prepared for different scenarios then those have to work, hopefully they will work as good as Mikel worked today."

Arsenal are second in the league standings, seven points behind leaders Liverpool. They will next face West Ham United at the Emirates on Saturday, February 22.