Neville 'offended' by Gunners hero as stars tipped to turn on 'overreaching' glory hunter

Gary Neville has “doubled down” on his criticism of an Arsenal hero who is “overreaching” to the point where the Gunners players may soon turn on him.

Mikel Arteta’s side closed the gap to Liverpool at the top of the Premier League to four points after their 2-1 victory over Tottenham in the North London derby followed the Reds’ 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest on Tuesday.

But Neville couldn’t resist having another go at set-piece coach Nicolas Jover in the wake of the crucial win at the Emirates.

The pundit previously labelled Jover as the “most annoying man in football” amid widespread praise for the coach during the 2024/2025 season owing to his animated presence on the touchline.

On the latest episode of the Stick to Football podcast, Neville urged Jover to wind his neck in.

Neville said: “I called him the most annoying man in football. Do you know something? I’m cementing my position, I’m doubling down.

“It’s offending me every week. I’m going to say this really calmly, I think he’s overreaching his importance.

“If a goalkeeper makes a good save, I don’t see the goalkeeping coach on the edge of the touchline. I don’t see the other coaches going up and getting the glory for it.

“The manager is at the front, he can’t communicate from 50 yards away to players who know what they’re doing. I think he’s overreaching his importance, I genuinely believe that.

“I see goalkeeper coaches and brilliant coaches who work on other aspects of the game, I don’t see them pointing to themselves and overreaching their importance.

“That’s how I feel. I get he’s important and he’s doing a great job but I do genuinely think he needs to sit back a little bit. I think the players will start to look at him as well and think, ‘hang on a minute, come on’.”

Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher agreed with Neville, adding: “I can’t disagree with it! I thought it was a bit harsh but I can’t really disagree.”

But Arsenal hero Ian Wright insisted Neville was being “very, very harsh” in his assessment of Jover.

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Speaking after the victory over Spurs, which saw Arsenal come from behind courtesy of a Dominic Solanke own goal and a Leandro Trossard strike following Son Heung-min’s opener, Arteta hailed the “intensity” of his side.

Arteta said: “We are still in the title race, there’s so much to play for but we can see how difficult it is for every team to win. When you have opportunities [to close the gap] you have to take them.

“This is a result to enjoy a moment and now we prepare for the next game. I’m very proud of the team, I thought we were sensational.

“It was a big test and we were not being rewarded in last two games in two different competitions. This was a test of our attitude and our courage.

“From the first minute we were really at it, really intense. We played with a real purpose to hurt them. We created an unbelievable atmosphere.

“We know how important the game is. It’s a gift we can make the supporters very happy.

“The attitude we played with, not feeling sorry for ourselves, was phenomenal. We played 120 minutes three days ago but its how you respond to that situation.’

“We had some big chances and big situations. At the end we had to suffer more than we wanted.”

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