Neville feels Mosquera and Hincapie hampered Arsenal 'enormously' in loss to Man City

Gary Neville feels Arsenal were "hampered enormously" against Manchester City by having to play Piero Hincapie and Cristhian Mosquera as the full-backs.

The Gunners have held onto top spot in the Premier League since October. But in recent weeks, they've been dropping points too often, while City have been on the charge.

The meeting of the two sides could well have decided the league title - had Arsenal won, it might have been over, but the loss means the Gunners are just three points clear at the top, a gap City will close if they beat Burnley on Wednesday.

Pep Guardiola's side were essentially at full strength in the 2-1 victory, while Arsenal were missing a number of good players, such as Jurrien Timber, Riccardo Calafiori and Bukayo Saka.

Neville feels the fact the former pair were missing in the wide defensive positions is what killed Arsenal, as the men who played instead don't have the same abilities on the front foot.

He told Sky Sports: “Arsenal were hampered enormously by their full-backs.

“I thought actually they did a good job, Hincapie and Mosquera, they really stuck to their task, but they’re limited on the ball.

“So if you think about Matheus Nunes and Nico O’Reilly for City, or how Jurrien Timber or Riccardo Calafiori or others are for Arsenal, they were just blocked off.

“You haven’t got that subtlety on that ball or that ability, that safe, consistent and reliable ability, to feed the ball in, good touches and passes and getting it into your front players and midfield players because they’re centre-backs effectively, they’re not full-backs.

“So I thought they stuck to the task really well, the two full-backs for Arsenal, but you lose a lot when you lose Timber, you lose a lot. He’s a bit of a powerhouse going forward, he links really well.

“I’m not mentioning Bukayo Saka because every player can get an injury so Noni Madueke is there, Gabriel Martinelli is there, you can’t whinge about Saka.

“But I think losing both of their full-backs would have cost them today in terms of on the ball and being able to get forward.”

Neither of Arsenal's makeshift full-backs created a chance, while both only had a single touch in the City box. Both also made only three passes into the final third each.

Had the Gunners had more attacking full-backs on the pitch, then they might have been able to create more quality chances, but once they'd gone 2-1 down, the ones they did create didn't count for much.