Rio Ferdinand explains why Gary Neville shouldn't have called Arsenal star disrespectful

Rio Ferdinand has slammed Gary Neville for accusing Arsenal defender Gabriel Magalhaes of' "disrespectful" behaviour towards Manchester City. Mikel Arteta's side were visibly charged up for the Premier League showdown on Sunday, which saw the Gunners dismantle their rivals with a 5-1 victory at the Emirates Stadium. The tension between the two teams, which has been brewing for several seasons, was evident straight away as Gabriel taunted Erling Haaland following Martin Odegaard's opening goal at the two-minute mark.

The match featured several more attempts by Arsenal to rile up Haaland, including 18-year-old left-back Myles Lewis-Skelly mimicking the Norwegian’s celebration after scoring Arsenal's third – a response to a comment made by Haaland earlier in the season. Despite the fiery encounter providing a nostalgic thrill for fans, United legend Neville – no stranger to heated incidents against Arsenal himself – took exception to the behaviour of some of their players, singling out Gabriel's celebration as "disrespectful".

However, Ferdinand, Neville's former Red Devils team-mate, has defended the passionate antics, suggesting that it is what fuels the excitement of the Premier League. He even highlighted Neville's own history of provocative celebrations and commended young Lewis-Skelly for boldly challenging City's talisman. He said on Rio Ferdinand presents: “One of the best things to come out of the game was Myles Lewis-Skelly. It was just nice to see a bit of needle in the game. I saw Gary Neville saying it’s disrespectful, what he did with his celebration or Gabriel did in front of Haaland’s face and stuff like that.

“Some of the biggest and most iconic moments in Premier League history aren’t about football. Roy Keane in the tunnel with Patrick Vieira, Martin Keown with Ruud van Nistelrooy, Emmanuel Adebayor running the length of the pitch at City to celebrate in front of the Arsenal fans. “These things are nothing to do with kicking a football but they’re part of [the spectacle]. And you hear people say ‘you shouldn’t do that’. Come on man. Gary Neville – one of his biggest moments was grabbing his badge in front of Liverpool fans after my goal. One of the visually iconic moments in his career.

“This is part of the emotion of football and why you tune in. The soap opera vibes. For an 18-year-old to do that celebration after Haaland said, ‘who the f*** are you?’ a few months ago, that was sick for me. Iconic.”. The rivalry between City and Arsenal began when the Gunners plucked manager Arteta from Pep Guardiola’s backroom staff in 2019. It reached another level when Arteta went on to poach Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko from City’s ranks, leading to Arsenal challenging the Etihad club for the title in each of the past two seasons.

City have edged out Arsenal to the title on both occasions, with that intense level of competition manifesting itself in a fierce rivalry on the pitch. It was clear to see after City rescued a 2-2 draw against a 10-man Arsenal at the Etihad in September, when Haaland threw a ball at Gabriel’s head and even told Arteta to "stay humble". Gabriel clearly hasn’t forgotten, cheekily asking Haaland to fetch his boot during their latest clash, while City's only goal-scorer later responded by gesturing to the Premier League champions badge on his sleeve. Fan opinion online has been split, with some relishing the fiery exchanges while others deemed it too much.

Gary Neville, weighing in on Sky Sports post-match, expressed his distaste: "I want to mention Gabriel and what he did to Haaland. It happened to me here, actually. Not here, it was at Highbury many, many years ago. Where a player came up and screamed in my face. We actually won the game 4-2 that day. I actually don't like it. I think it's a bit disrespectful. "I get the fact that Haaland's sort of pantomime villain here today, but there's something about it that I didn't like about it. I was many things but I never did that. I never went and screamed in a player's face. I don't know, I just felt there's something about that I thought made me feel a little bit uneasy, a little bit disrespectful.".

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