\n<\/p>\n
Gary Neville thinks Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice can win the crucial Premier League game against Manchester City for the Gunners on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Arsenal<\/strong> are currently top of the Premier League<\/strong> after 32 matches as Mikel Arteta looks to guide them to their first title since 2003\/04.<\/p>\n However, their chances have taken a bit of a knock in recent weeks with a 2-1 loss to Bournemouth last weekend allowing Manchester City back into the title race.<\/p>\n Man City have a game in hand on Arsenal, who are six points ahead, while they will also host the Gunners at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.<\/p>\n Arsenal have won just one of their last five matches in all competitions, including a defeat to Man City in the Carabao Cup final, while they also exited the FA Cup to Southampton.<\/p>\n Rice has been in good form for most of the season for the Gunners and Neville has tipped the former West Ham star to step up on the big occasion at the weekend.<\/p>\n READ: Arsenal \u2019embarrassingly boring\u2019 and Arteta destined for Rangers after sack as \u2018brainless\u2019 Rice slammed<\/strong><\/p>\n Neville told The Overlap<\/em>: \u201cI do think Declan Rice is someone\u2026 When he went to Arsenal for \u00a3100 million, I was gutted. I think he\u2019s a Manchester United player.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s the player, Harry Kane, Declan Rice, that Manchester United would have always signed back in the day. You don\u2019t let Declan Rice go to any other club.<\/p>\n \u201cTo me, on Sunday, he is the player I am looking at. This is not me putting pressure on him, by the way. This is me expecting that this is the Roy Keane moment, the Gerrard moment.\u201d<\/p>\n Arsenal were held to a 0-0 draw against Sporting CP earlier this week as they scraped through to the Champions League semi-finals, thanks to a 1-0 first-leg win.<\/p>\n And now former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has U-turned on a previous prediction by insisting that Arsenal don\u2019t have the firepower to win the Champions League.<\/p>\n Carragher told CBS Sports<\/em>: \u201cI\u2019m not sure they\u2019ve got the quality in the attack.<\/p>\n \u201cThe game we just watched tonight, you think of the players on both teams, Arsenal don\u2019t have that.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a criticism, they just don\u2019t have those players in attack, they haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, that\u2019s why I think when you get to the business end of the season, certainly in the Champions League\u2026 even though I tipped Arsenal to win it, I just don\u2019t believe it.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t see a team winning the Champions League who don\u2019t have a star in the front four, and they haven\u2019t got one.\u201d<\/p>\n MORE ARSENAL COVERAGE ON F365\u2026<\/strong> Arsenal legend Thierry Henry wants to see \u201cthe fire\u201d from the Gunners as they face Man City in their crucial clash against Pep Guardiola\u2019s outfit on Sunday.<\/p>\n Henry told CBS Sports<\/em>: \u201cI want to see that fire at the Etihad.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what I want to see, it\u2019s easy to talk, go there, at Man City, and deliver.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe in what I see though, I believe in him Arteta, \u2018the fire\u2019, but when you talk like that you have to do it then. I didn\u2019t see that tonight.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are through, so happy, semi-final, I never won it, but I won the league though, go and win at Man City, I want to see that fire there, I believe Mikel, yes, but show it.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked how Arsenal should approach the match against City, Henry responded: \u201cNot like tonight (Sporting), or against Bournemouth, or Brighton away, or Mansfield, or everything that I\u2019ve seen this season.\u201d<\/p>\n On whether the performance against Sporting would beat Man City, Henry replied: \u201cThe Man City I\u2019ve seen recently? We\u2019re talking about the team that won four in a row, Liverpool came in between that if not it would have been more.<\/p>\n \u201cI do believe, I\u2019ve been saying since the beginning of the season, this year I do believe we can win the league, this is the biggest chance in your life just to prove to yourself, as a team, that we can.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then people will not talk about the word they want to use that I do not want to use.<\/p>\n \u201cI do believe personally but I am sitting in a chair for CBS, there\u2019s nothing I can do. Now I heard \u2018fire\u2019, I want to see that fire at the Etihad.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you have the face of Declan Rice go back to that, at the end of the game I stayed with his face, you had a lot of guys smiling but his face\u2026 I don\u2019t know, maybe I need to speak to him to know what he had in his head. This is a guy who just went through to the semi-final of the Champions League.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no positive or negative here. We are in a semi-final of a Champions League, well done, that didn\u2019t happen a lot in history so obviously I\u2019m over the moon. But City\u2026 I want the team to win there, not draw, statement.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/div>\n
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