Gary Neville reacts to CHAOTIC Chelsea vs Arsenal clash! ⚔️ | The Gary Neville Podcast

Well welcome along to the Gary Neville podcast. It's a special edition today in which later on we'll be paying tribute to Sir Bobby Charlton whose death was sadly announced earlier today. Gary and I have been at Stamford Bridge which was where Sir Bobby actually made his final appearance for Manchester United and we've taken in the Chelsea against Arsenal match which finished 2-2 and was a real thriller Gary. Yeah it ended up that way it was really good from Chelsea for probably 75-80 minutes and then that obviously that mistake from Sanchez let Arsenal back in it but it's rare that you would say that both teams will probably go away happy tonight. I think Chelsea happy that they've put in a really good performance and they've shown sort of like a blueprint of what maybe the future could look like. They've still got a problem up front they haven't got a striker and I still think they've got a problem potentially obviously with Thiago Silva's age he's so important for them but he's 39 as you pointed out to me in and then the goalkeeper the question is to whether the goalkeeper can step up to be a top goalkeeper but you can see that midfield you can see in wide areas they're bright they're fullbacks I thought Cucarella and Gusto did well today and they're the second fullbacks by the way so there was something like a real performance today structurally defensively they were fantastic I thought the way in which they went from 4-4-2 defensively and then they had that sort of split wide players what Brighton do with then they had Gallagher and Palmer coming back into sort of number 10 positions it really sort of shocked Arsenal and then it out of possession they couldn't get the ball into Urdegaard Arsenal because of Chelsea's four that were there Gallagher, Palmer, Casedo and Fernandes it was really good Mirceo Pochettino is a top coach I think he'll enjoy developing these players there's improvements in some of them you can see out there Mudrick in particular I think will be happier out of today so they'll go I'm sure he's giving them a very positive message in that dressing room right now and probably reminding them that you know concentration making mistakes you know Gusto's just switched up at the back post on the cross from Saka for Trossard's goal and then obviously the goalkeeper so mistakes like that can cost you but they were the better team out there today and Arsenal have had to work hard and then from Arsenal's perspective they'll be happy because they've got away with one they haven't played well they've been nowhere near the best the two centre-halves looked as shaky as I've seen them for a bit but to still pull a point away from a game like that is really good for Arsenal I think Howard Webb and his officials would probably tell you that handball is the most difficult thing to judge where do your sympathies lie with the one that Arsenal gave away do they lie with Saliba yeah and look we've got this thing about an unnatural position and making your body bigger for me that's when you're blocking a shot and you're a defender you're here just watch me you're blocking a shot if your arms up there as you're blocking a shot then I think you're asking for trouble your arms up here you're dead you definitely got a penalty but as you jump for a ball I mean your arms come up I'm sorry I'm a defender I've been doing it for sort of 25 30 years and every time you go up you're told to you can't not jump do a squat jump in the gym a long jumper that all their arms come up they swing with you because that's that's your leverage that's how you get maximum height so the idea that Saliba who to be fair is trying to block the shot and say that's not happened and I don't think it is I didn't you know the Michael Keane one was very similar earlier on in the sort of day at the Derby Merseyside Derby but different that one because it came from the ball on the ground it's come across whereas Saliba's jumping for a ball he's a bit desperate because he realizes that Modric's got across him and I just feel a lot of sympathy I saw on social media that John Terry said something similar John Terry is a massive Chelsea fan but he's a centre-back he's a defender we have sympathy with defenders who are jumping with their arms it look sort of up the sort of shoulder height because that's what you do that's just natural so I've got sympathy for Saliba but I wasn't surprised to be fair as soon as we saw it on the VR screens that we have here that the referee was going to get called over to the screen it's almost that referees are expecting defenders to act like goalkeepers these days in the way that they come out with their arms but talking of goalkeepers David Ryer is going to be very much in the focus again for the second Chelsea goal you obviously feel that this is a problem that Mikel Arteta has brought on himself I do well look I mean if a goalkeeper makes mistakes then that's the goalkeeper's problem but the problem is there's a very good goalkeeper in the waiting who hasn't done anything wrong yet this season and he was left out of a game a few months ago a month or so ago surprised us all we thought it might be for a couple of games but it looks like David Ryer now it is the number one the problem is David Ryer he started to look a little nervy in the last few games he started to make mistakes and I've been there I've been there at United where we've had two equal goalkeepers and you sort of the manager change one then he brought the other one in and this was the greatest manager of all time it was when Roy Carroll and Tim Howard were there people might say oh they're not as good as Ryer and Ramsdale it doesn't really matter you've got two goalkeepers who are of equal ability and you don't know which one's your number one you've got an issue you've got an issue trust me you've got an issue it happened a little bit with England when Tim Flowers was doing brilliantly for Blackburn and David Seaman was there but you know quite clearly Terry Venable's name David Seaman's his number one he was adamant so I think that there is a problem brewing here whereby Ramsdale's going to start knocking on the door and say get me back in and if he doesn't he's gonna have to leave so even though it looks like this competition for places in the goalkeeping position it won't last long this you know the maximum will be a season because the goalkeeper is not playing or feels hard done to will end up leaving and want to play premier league football or football in a top league and I don't think it can work and there's nothing I'm seeing that say it can work and I also think it puts more pressure on the one that's in because he knows the other guy's waiting in the wings who's very good so to me I think that yeah Ryer's got to settle down he's a good goalkeeper Ramsdale's a good goalkeeper they've got two very good ones but I suspect the whole pressure of the situation caused by me you everybody else talking about it on a constant basis but ultimately caused by Mikel Arteta he's the one that's brought this situation upon himself by having these two excellent goalkeepers that he sees as being a good problem to have I don't think it's a good problem in that position I know in every other position you want good competition for places but when you've got two goalkeepers that are undermining each other by the fact that they're both good and one makes a mistake then you look at the other one on the bench and our cameras throw to me it just isn't healthy in that position you need to give that goalkeeper in that position the strength of mind you're my number one and give him that comfort and then change him at the end of the season if you don't think he's your number one and let you know let let the other one go if you know what I mean but don't have both of them there that's my view is there a problem across the premier league landscape in that people have seen what Edison has done and have now become obsessed with goalkeepers who are good with their feet and therefore the the other basics of goalkeeping have almost been sidelined yeah it was it was his position I mean he had a couple of problems with his feet as well but it was his positioning on that goal that was the problem he was out of position he didn't reset himself there's one in the first half I don't think he reset himself for as well if I remember rightly yeah that to me I honestly what would I say is the most important characteristic for me as a box they look huge in the goal that they when there's a cross comes in they catch it and they come out and dominate it or punch it miles away to me that's what I want as a defender from a goalkeeper now except today they have to also be good with their feet and they're not mutually exclusive you can have both Allison Edison and got other goalkeepers in the world and we seem to sort of like be yeah but he's good with his feet but that seems to sort of that doesn't excuse the fact that they're in poor positions or they let goals in that they shouldn't so you have to be good with both but for me the most important characteristic and maybe it's a traditional thought process is that I would always want a goalkeeper is an unbelievable shot stopper who's dominant on crosses who basically doesn't get caught up on corners with other players around just gets them out of the way and comes and catches they're to me the most important characteristics as a defender and I still think they would be today for most defenders out there you'd forgive the odd bad pass or the odd boot long if they didn't want to play out through the except in these goalkeepers are all pretty good with their feet you know I think I've told the story quite a few times now about in Spain where the goalkeepers joined in every part of the actual outfield session and then did the goalkeeping work at the end because they saw it as being of equal importance whereas England the goalkeepers only joined with the football part in the last bit they used to do the goalkeeping work for the first 45 minutes of the session so that's something that flipped on its head for me when I went away with it to Valencia for those months it completely transformed how I saw goalkeeping but I still think the shot stopping bit and the dominating of your area is crucial to create that composure and lack of anxiety in the ground you don't want your goalkeeper flapping like he was on the corner Sanchez before you don't want your goalkeeper getting involved in those things you just don't you want them just to be calm and deal with it and that's what Edison and Allison do they're world-class but all that being said even with the problems that Raya had Arsenal are now nine games unbeaten and even though they didn't play well does the fact that they've got something out of the game kind of back up your opinion which you expressed a few weeks ago that you think Arsenal could win the title this season yeah that gives me more I mean today they've been really poor but that gives me more confidence that they will win the league today by the fact they've come back and salvaged a point out of a game where they were well below par they were well below par that's the worst I've seen Arsenal play credit to Chelsea by the way in which they defended by the way a lot of it was to do with Chelsea as well but it's the worst I've seen Arsenal on the ball for a long time they really struggled in the game they couldn't create a chance they didn't have a shot on target for 70 odd minutes and Declan Rice's goal was fantastic by the way even though it was a mistake it was a brilliant goal but I think it's a really good point for Arsenal I think they'll go into that dressing room today and they'll wake themselves up and say come on that wasn't good enough but I'll tell you what it doesn't half feel good when you get a point away a big round you can always lose at Stamford Bridge at Anfield at the Etihad at the Emirates these grounds you can always lose at these grounds as a big club when you go to each other's so the fact that you've not played well but you've stolen a point is a brilliant feeling and I think that will give them confidence and just a brief look at what happened elsewhere today Manchester City back on track they and Liverpool both won for City I suppose the sending off of the Kanji could come back to no and the Manchester derby is next Sunday so the important after international break they've had players all around the world that to get back into it and win and Brighton are a tough team to play against they can pop it through you and you know Chelsea today Maurizio Pochettino that was Deserby's tactics when they were in possession it was it was classic Deserby um so no it was it was fantastic um it was fantastic result for City in some ways that obviously Kanji sent off's a problem I know they were 2-0 up then Brighton come back to 2-1 but they're an awkward customer Brighton it can catch you out if you're not right and City's last few results have been a little bit sort of up and down so it's important that they got off the back of this international break with a victory and they've done that and it's the Manchester derby next week so we'll see what happens with that and I think you saw a bit of the Merseyside derby didn't you before coming here yeah I thought Everton did quite well in the sense of you know sometimes I've seen Everton go there and capitulate and actually thought Liverpool were below par they were helped by the sending off obviously um Ashley Young no doubt about that but they still did quite well with the 10 men and I think Canarte was lucky um I left at 1-0 um so I saw the penalty Michael Keane and then obviously Salah scored it and then I left I didn't see the last part of the game I came here but yeah I know it's a good result for Liverpool but I think Everton can be I don't think Everton will be too downbeat after that performance I think they'll think there was some positives came out of it I've seen them there a lot worse We're speaking here now ahead of the Sheffield United Manchester United match which is this evening but ahead of that game obviously things have been overshadowed with today's news about the death of Sir Bobby Charlton an iconic figure um let's start with his playing career I know it's hard to compare across eras but is there a case for saying that he's the the greatest English footballer of all time I think he is the greatest English football player of all time the winning of the World Cup the winning of the Ballon d'Or the winning of the European Cup the impact that he's had on English football um winning all those trophies but also just his longevity at Manchester United playing over 750 games which is just unbelievable over 100 games for England you think about the fact that his journey as a youth player and it's that really sort of I always think of those three consecutive FA Youth Cups and Manchester United one of them Duncan Edwards won three consecutive Youth Cups as well but that's where Manchester United it was it was built on the principle of the Youth Cup the FA Youth Cup when I joined in 1991-92 was everything at that club they hadn't won it for some time but it was everything it was a big trophy and Manchester United I think won it the first five years in existence in the 50s early 50s and mid 50s and Sir Bobby Charlton was part of that and when you think of the Busby Babes and what that sort of created at Manchester United this belief in youth and opportunity and he was the greatest representative of that in the sense that he survived the Munich air crash that great tragedy where obviously he lived through it and he obviously lost so many of his teammates and colleagues and then how he obviously recovered with the rest of the club to be able to come through that in the early 60s in the mid 60s to win titles but then to go on and win 10 years later the European Cup at Wembley is absolutely incredible and obviously Sir Bobby Charlton is an icon he's a legend those words that get used he is the genuine legend of Manchester United he's the only player that's played for the club that's ever had a stand named after him I know Sir Alex Ferguson has got one but he didn't play for the club he managed the club he's got the statue out front with George Best and Dennis Law the three greatest names in Manchester United's history the three you know sort of the the godfathers if you like of what Manchester United is and when you go there as a young player and you hear the story of the Busby Babes and you hear the story of the Blazers the club Blazer that the Busby Babes wore and sort of the expectation of discipline and hard work the Cliff training ground in Salford and Littleton Road and all those places where the Babes grew up Bobby Charlton lived to tell the story through the eras the great areas of Manchester United of Sir Matt Busby and Sir Alex Ferguson because he came to every single match when I was there he was in the dressing room after every single match now all the directors were he wasn't the only director but you think of his stability and his guidance in those early years of Sir Alex Ferguson when he could see what Sir Alex was doing behind the scenes with the youth system when he could see the principles that Sir Alex Ferguson was putting in place when many wanted him gone and he was one of the stalwarts he was one of the ones that in the boardroom along with obviously Martin Edwards that said no this is this is something's happening here there's some foundations being built and there's no doubt how important he was Sir Alex has spoken about how important he was to have that thread of history running through the club and that football experience and knowledge and then I always think of him in 99 the tear in his eye sort of when we won the Champions League in the Nou Camp and you always remember that picture and that sort of footage of him where he's got the tear in his eye and you think you know he traveled with us in Europe he used to train the night before the game with us in the boxes you know the little boxes that we used to the rondos they call them now we used to call them boxes where you have the eight players on the outside the two in the middle and he'd be one you know Sir Alex Ferguson would join in one box and he would join in the other and this was well into his 50s you know training with us and joining in with us and that spirit of the club lived through Sir Bobby Charlton that representation of what the club meant and I know I sometimes get criticized when I talk about you know this is Manchester United and what a Manchester United player is but it was these people Sir Bobby Charlton, Brian Kidd, Nobby Styles, Sir Alex Ferguson who explained to us what a Manchester United player was and what was expected of you on and off the pitch and I think he's the greatest ambassador for Manchester United on and off the pitch that has ever lived and he's also I think the greatest ambassador and icon of English football that's ever lived. Because I suppose really he was central to the story of why Manchester United have a global following that the outpouring of sympathy after Munich, the build back to the European Cup as you've mentioned 10 years later and as you say even in the trouble you're still in involvement with the club. It's unimaginable that what those players went through what the staff went through at the club what the people at the club the fans went through when obviously the Munich air crash happened and they had to go out and play again a few weeks later and the mates their best mates almost like brothers growing up together playing in the youth teams from 13, 14, 15 and you've got to go out there and carry on and play you talk about resilience and robustness and character and personality these great traits that we all want in our children and in sort of all the people that we come across in life they had it in abundance but they also had skill and talent and humility and so Bobby carried all those characteristics throughout his life he was always humble he was a gentleman and I did many appearances with him sort of as an ambassador as well whilst I was at the club where you'd go and sort of meet dignitaries and people like that and he was the perfect role model of how you should behave as a football player on the pitch and you should behave as a football player off the pitch he was rightly knighted for his achievements in the game he also set up Sir Bobby Charlton soccer school which was obviously a legacy play for him beyond his football career which had an impact on so many young people we saw Jamie Redknapp earlier on today talking about attending the Sir Bobby Charlton soccer school David Beckham that they found David Beckham that soccer school you know there's you know there's pictures of a young 12 year old David Beckham with Sir Bobby Charlton at his soccer school so you think of the impact that he was having during his career but the impact that he continued to have beyond this career is something special and his standards were everything and there's a little story I've never forgotten this we were playing against Bradford at Old Trafford and you'd have to look for the game and I'm sure the sort of statisticians will we were winning 6-0 and it was a night game it was right near the end of the game and there I am young I think I was probably 20-21 years of age I was actually playing centre-back left centre-back on the stand side facing the Stratford end so I was on the dugout side right near the end of the game and there was a Bradford player broke down the left-hand side so the right-hand side my left and I went over and absolutely clattered him at 6-0 and I remember the crowd going hey I knew I never thought anything of it um you know that was what you did you were Gary Neville you had to go and tackle and you had to go and get stuck in and to be fair you know I hit the lad hard and to be fair I was gave a foul away and he came and pulled me in the dressing room after a game he said can I have a word with you and he said we don't do that he said we show class and I have to say that that was something that I always remember to this day because obviously you know I played with I played under Alex Ferguson and say Eric Harrison Nobby Styles and they were always get stuck in get wired in and that was that sort of message that you get from some of the people that you came across at Manchester United but then you had this sort of different approach of Bobbie Charlton who was so graceful and always wanted the club to represent itself well and he came and had a word with me and said we don't do that you know we act with class because he said you know you shouldn't at 6-0 up you didn't need to go and do that um and it always stuck with me it was almost like a telling off really from sort of like you know your father or your grandfather at the time um but I always remember him coming into the games into the dressing room I said I suspect it was always very easy for directors to come into our dressing room after victories and very difficult for them to come in particularly with Sir Alex and the way he was after a defeat and the way we were after a defeat but Sir Bobbie Charlton would come in and quite often remember him coming round and you know keep your head up keep your head up son you know next week there's a game you know he always put things into perspective there was never an emotional reaction it was always something that you would always balanced um and he just like to say I want to repeat what I said he's the greatest representation of English football and Manchester United I think that has ever lived and you know the tributes that we've seen today from everybody in the game are fully deserved because some managers wouldn't like directors talking directly to players would they but nobody was going to argue bearing in mind his credentials did he wear those credentials well I mean presumably he was he wasn't sort of boastful about the fact that he'd won every major honor in the game he hid that well you never I mean I have to say I work very close um European Cup winners World Cup winners um and obviously was you know exposed to Sir Bobbie Charlton on a regular basis at matches our matches where he used to come in the dressing room but he's a director so I wasn't working with him directly every single day but he carried the club he was an ambassador for the football club at all times you always got the feeling that you know that line of you know you don't just represent Manchester United when you play for them you represent when you leave the building when you leave the stadium and I got the impressions from in fact I know from Sir Bobbie he felt that way he he lived like that um and he was adored obviously all around the grounds in the country that he used to go to um and it's right you know a club like Manchester United should have fantastic ex-players involved at the club making sure that there is a sort of understanding and a thread and he carried that really well and we've seen at some clubs it can work and some clubs it doesn't work but I have to say at Manchester United he's been the perfect person to sort of transport the values and principles of United sort of from if you like the 1950s when he joined right the way through to sort of you like 2000 and sort of 15 to 20 when he probably will have stopped going to matches in the last few years um you know there's no doubt he was the sort of if you like shining beacon of standard and principle and value that you always would want to look at if you were talking about what you want to try and achieve in the game and we shouldn't overlook what he did with England because of course every subsequent generation has has tried and failed he got the goal that got England to the World Cup final was a big part of the team that actually won that day for uh Alf Ramsey's side so again just another remarkable layer to his career oh I mean that's I'm saying how many players in history have won the Champions or the European Cup the World Cup and the Ballon d'Or and the United and I still throw those three I still throw those three youth cups in because I think of that sort of if you like those embryonic years and how he established the principle of what United is and giving you know I think it's something I don't know the exact start but I think it's something like 70 or 80 years there's been a homegrown product in Manchester United's matchday squad that was born out of that era that was born out of those lads that was born out of Sir Bobby Charlton and you think of what he achieved for England I mean I played I went to five World Cups sorry three World Cups as a player and a coach and five European Championships got to a couple of semi-finals but never once got over the line he got over the line his teammates and him got over the line with Sir Alf Ramsey and you can never underestimate how big that was at the time for our country I know how big it would be now if we even got close we did do a couple of years ago in 2020 where we got close to winning a major tournament and it would mean everything to us in this country but they did it he did it and he achieved everything that you can in a game elite performance level the very best so not just like sort of like a this is everything Ballon d'Or your English players don't win the Ballon d'Or Sir Bobby Charlton did you know he won the Ballon d'Or the greatest but you know the one that Messi wins the one that sort of Ronaldo wins the one that the greatest players of all time win he won so he obviously was a phenomenal player obviously never saw him play live but you see some of the goals and some of the sort of the sort of the moments in games that he had and yeah I say it was I think Jamie Redknapp summed it up very well when he talked about the heavy boots the heavy pitches the bobbly pitches that the leather balls that got soaking wet and he was able to leather them smash them rocket them from 30 yards into the top corner and how he used to do that I have he did try management I think he would probably admit that it wasn't what he was cut out for had that brief spell at Preston do you think because he knew how tough the job was that um meant or led to why he was so supportive of Sir Alec Ferguson during those dark difficult early years yeah I know he had the period at Preston I know it didn't work for him but I've never asked him about this uh never spoken to him about it never heard him speak about it either but for me he was a one club man as a player and the idea of him leaving Manchester United to go work somewhere else I don't know this for a fact but I just got the feeling that he would always have to have represented Manchester United that he couldn't go and represent another club that he was just so committed um to Manchester United and I just couldn't see him having any other club colours on or any other club blazer or track suit on so I don't know obviously it didn't work for many different reasons maybe or different reasons than I'm suggesting but I can't see him anywhere other than wearing the red shirt of United wearing the blue shirt in the champion in the European cup final wearing the sort of if you like the England shirt but then wearing the Manchester United blazer representing the club as a director which is where I saw him and I think that is to me the image that I will always carry in my head of Sir Bobby Charlton in wearing the club blazer with the traditional crest um that the Busby Babes wore that to me is what he carried all the way through his life and it's something the club should never forget can never forget we you know we have to move on you have to live in modern times you have to have modern ways of playing and recruitment but there are some things that are a thread right the way through and that is one of them and I think Sir Bobby Charlton is that thread um and we've lost him today which is an extremely sad day but his memory lives on and what he's done in the game lives on and what he actually has achieved is phenomenal there's no other English player comes close to him in terms of his achievements well as I mentioned at the start it was here that he played his final game at Stamford Bridge he was presented on the pitch before the game by the then Chelsea chairman with a silver inscribed cigarette case which shows how the game has changed in the 50 years since I don't think you'd be presenting that kind of thing now but a truly remarkable career and well covered Gary and a very sad day with Bobby Charlton's family very much in our thoughts yeah absolutely that was going to be my final thoughts that sort of Lady Norma and the family um all our thoughts are with you today tonight and um like I say the tributes that are pouring in that I've seen this afternoon they'll go on for many many days and weeks because they deserve to because he was true great of English football and the Manchester United thanks for joining us on the Gary Neville Podcast.