Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville has criticised Gabriel Magalhães for “disrespecting” Erling Haaland in Arsenal’s 5-1 thrashing of Manchester City on Sunday.
Gabriel reacted to Martin Ødegaard’s second-minute opener by screaming in Haaland’s face before Myles Lewis-Skelly followed his first senior goal by mimicking Haaland’s meditating celebration.
When the two teams last met in September, in the reverse fixture, Haaland hit Gabriel in the back of the head with the ball and clashed with members of the Arsenal squad after full-time — infamously telling Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta to “stay humble.”
Neville has said the incident made him feel “uneasy” and that it was “disrespectful” of the Arsenal centre-back.
“I want to mention Gabriel and what he did to Haaland,” Neville said on his Sky Sports podcast.
“It happened to me actually at Highbury many, many years ago and we actually won 4-2 that day. A player screamed in my face.
“I actually don’t like it, I think it’s a bit disrespectful. I get that Haaland was the pantomime villain here today but there was something about it that I didn’t like.
“I never went and screamed in a player’s face … I just didn’t like that, it made me feel a little bit uneasy, it was a little bit disrespectful.”
Arteta has since appeared to warn his players over their pointed celebrations at Haaland.
“We have to focus on us and to leaving anything that happened there, just part of the game on the pitch and the feeling, whatever happens there,” Arteta said.
Arsenal are six points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool, who have a game-in-hand on Wednesday against Everton.
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