Gary Neville and Ian Wright disagreed over the quality of the forward lines in the Arsenal and Chelsea squads before the two sides meet in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon. Both the Gunners and the Blues have a 100 percent record on the line at the Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal defeated Coventry City and Aston Villa in their first two Premier League matches of the season, while Chelsea earned wins over Fulham and Brighton.
Punditry debate over attacking options
Wright and Neville were part of Sky Sports’ punditry team for the coverage of Arsenal vs Chelsea. The duo got into a debate about the forward options available to Xabi Alonso and Mikel Arteta.
Neville suggested that he believes Arteta would prefer Chelsea's attacking resources over the players currently at his disposal at Arsenal.
“If you say to Mikel Arteta: 'Would you swap your forward line for Chelsea's?' He would swap,” Neville said.
“He'd put [Morgan] Rogers, Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro up there in front of [Bukayo] Saka, [Kai] Havertz and [Ebere] Eze, he would. So it's not the strongest part of Arsenal's team, but what he's done in defence and in midfield has become that good.
“If you don't concede goals, you've got a great chance of winning nearly every single match. If you're conceding goals, you're going to lose more points.”
Wright hits back
Wright, however, took exception to Neville's view, with the Arsenal icon responding: “I'm not having that over Saka, Havertz and Eze. I'm not having that.”
Neville then responded by saying: “You don't think he'd [Arteta] pick Rogers, Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro over those three [Havertz, Saka and Eze], Ian?”
Wright replied: “Not for me, no.” Neville then concluded the debate by saying: “Oh dear.”
Summer transfer business
Arsenal strengthened their attacking options this summer by bringing in Christos Tzolis, though they sanctioned the exits of Leandro Trossard, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus.
Chelsea, meanwhile, have also strengthened their forward line considerably, with Rogers being joined by Geovany Quenda, Danny Welbeck, Emmanuel Emegha and Dastan Satpaev in making the move to Stamford Bridge before the deadline.
