Gary Neville claims Ferguson would have 'killed' Man Utd players for Arsenal blunder

Gary Neville claims Sir Alex Ferguson would have ‘killed’ him and any of his Manchester United team-mates had they made the mistake Jakub Kiwior did during Arsenal’s defeat to Brighton. 

 Kiwior fell to the ground in Arsenal’s penalty box after minimal contact with Julio Enciso, giving the Brighton star a free header when the ball was crossed back in moments later. 

  Arsenal needed a win to prevent Manchester City from staying four points clear, but failed to get back into the game and were beaten 3-0 after late goals from Deniz Undav and Estupinan. 

 The defeat dealt a major blow to Arsenal’s title hopes and left Manchester City one win away from a fifth title in six years. 

 Neville conceded the title race was ‘finished’ after Arsenal dropped points and City beat Everton and said Kiwior’s error would not have been tolerated by Fergie. 

 Speaking on the Gary Neville podcast for Sky Sports, the former United defender said: ‘How harsh should I be on Kiwior? ‘If I did that while I was at Manchester United, I’m getting killed for that. Any defender is getting killed for that in my United team. 

 ‘He wasn’t that injured, you’ve got to get up. He was up and running after Mitoma a few moments later. I’ve got very little sympathy for him. 

 ‘He needs to look at that and admit he needed to do better. Just get up and make sure you defend the attack. It was a poor moment for him and a poor moment for Arsenal, but Brighton deserved it.’

Assessing the Premier League title race, Neville added: ‘I think that’s it done now. ‘It was a difficult game for Manchester City on paper but they strolled and that has had an impact on those Arsenal players. It has been too much for them over the past few weeks. 

 ‘This moment was always going to come where Arsenal find it difficult and they haven’t been able to get through it.’ 

 Jamie Carragher, Patrick Vieira and Roy Keane all criticised Kiwior’s bizarre reaction in the build-up to Brighton’s opening goal at the Emirates.

 But the Arsenal January signing felt he was fouled by Enciso and thought VAR would disallow the goal. 

 ‘I felt contact, lost my boot and didn’t even see the goal,’ the defender told Viaplay. ‘I hoped VAR would intervene and chalk off the goal, but unfortunately, the referee saw it differently.’