Gary Neville: Alvarez Could Make Arsenal Champions League Winners
Arsenal have opened the season like a team that mean business. Community Shield in the bag after beating Manchester City, a 3-0 stroll past newly-promoted Coventry, the Emirates loud and convinced.
Yet Gary Neville still sees one missing piece.
The Sky Sports pundit believes that if Mikel Arteta can somehow prise Julian Alvarez away from Atletico Madrid in the final days of the window, the Premier League champions would be transformed into Champions League winners. Not contenders. Winners.
“What a squad [Mikel Arteta] has built,” Neville said. “If he puts another forward into that, if they could get Julian Alvarez somehow, that would light this place up as you'd have a world-class striker to go with all the world-class defenders and midfielders.
“They wouldn't just become Premier League title winners they'd go the next step and win a Champions League. It's a massive 10 days. He needs a bit of magic up front - someone that can win a game for you when you don't play well.”
The Alvarez Question
Arsenal are not alone in their admiration. Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain are also tracking the Argentina international, whose reputation has rocketed in Spain. Atletico, though, have been adamant.
Earlier in the summer, CEO Miguel Angel Gil made their stance clear: they do not want to sell Alvarez and would not even accept £170m for the forward. A public hands-off warning, and a marker of how highly they value him.
Neville, however, thinks Arsenal should at least force the issue, test that resolve and see if a deal that shifts the balance of European power is even possible.
Odegaard’s Killer Ball Needs a Killer Run
On the pitch, Arsenal’s attack already looks refreshed. Coventry were brushed aside, 3-0, with a fluency that suggested Arteta’s side are nowhere near done evolving.
Martin Odegaard, in particular, is setting the tempo. Neville sees a playmaker ready to explode – if given the right runner ahead of him.
“He [Odegaard] is exceptional. If there was an Ian Wright-type player up front for Arsenal who makes those short runs he'd be even better,” Neville said.
At the moment, he argued, the movement in front of Odegaard shapes his passing.
“As [Kai] Havertz and [Viktor] Gyokeres always come to the ball, Odegaard has to play possession rather than playing the slip passes. If Arsenal were to sign Julian Alvarez then he'd go up a level as it would be perfect for the style of play.”
In other words, the Norwegian is already dictating games. A striker like Alvarez, constantly darting in behind, could turn those clever angles into something far more ruthless.
Carragher: One World-Class Spark Still Missing
Jamie Carragher sees the same gap, even as he praises Arsenal’s rise. For him, the champions are still short of one undisputed superstar in the front four.
“I still think Arsenal lack a world-class player in the front four,” he said. “About two years ago I thought Saka and Odegaard would make that next step. For whatever reason it's not happened due to injuries or Arsenal not being at their best. Those two were close to getting to the levels shown by Man City and Liverpool players, like [Kevin] De Bruyne and [Erling] Haaland or [Mohamed] Salah and [Sadio] Mane. They took their teams to the title.
“Arsenal won the league without [Saka and Odegaard] doing it. They did it by having a great defence and goalkeeper. But I still think Saka and Odegaard can get back to where they were a couple of years ago.”
Carragher’s twist is that he doesn’t think the solution has to come from a galáctico signing.
“The psychological factor of being champions now will take this Arsenal team to another level rather than buying a superstar player,” he added.
In his eyes, the next leap might come from within: from Saka and Odegaard rediscovering those pre-injury heights, now armed with the belief of having already climbed to the top of English football.
Odegaard, Tzolis and a New-Look Arsenal Front Line
On Sunday, the evidence on the grass backed up that optimism.
Sky Sports’ Sam Blitz watched Arsenal’s attack rip Coventry apart and argued the club’s much-debated transfer window has been smarter than many critics suggested.
Vinicius Jr was the name many fans dreamed of. Morgan Rogers was another linked option. Instead, Arsenal have gone a different route – and early signs are that it suits them.
Christos Tzolis, in particular, looked like a steal. A spark.
After a quiet first five minutes, the winger suddenly ignited the left flank, firing off two shots and creating two chances in a frantic four-minute burst. Coventry never really recovered from that spell.
The pressure finally told. Tzolis won the ball high for the first goal, then delivered the cross for Bukayo Saka to score the second. Relentless, direct, constantly asking questions.
On the other side of the pitch, Odegaard’s influence kept growing. Fresh from a standout Community Shield display, he opened his league account for the season, already matching last year’s Premier League tally after a campaign wrecked by injuries that saw him miss 30 matches in all competitions.
There was another telling detail: this was only the second time since December 2024 that Saka, Odegaard and Havertz had started together. All three scored. The combinations that Arteta could only sketch on a tactics board last season are finally appearing on the grass.
Odegaard now feels like a new signing. With three open-play goals already, Arsenal look like a new team.
The question is whether that is enough for Europe – or whether a late, audacious move for Julian Alvarez is the final gamble that turns domestic champions into serial contenders on the biggest stage.
