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Man City goal: Gary Neville singles out Arsenal player and makes transfer claim
MANCHESTER CITY took just 14 minutes to open their Premier League account against Arsenal - and Gary Neville was not happy with the Gunners defending.
Raheem Sterling popped up with the opener early in the first half of City’s trip to Arsenal.
The England international, who failed to score at the World Cup this summer, somehow squeezed a shot past three Arsenal defenders on the edge of the area.
Goalkeeper Petr Cech moved to his left but did not dive for the ball as it flew past him into the net.
Sterling’s strike came after heavy pressure from City in the opening stages of Unai Emery’s first Premier League game in charge of Arsenal.
That was too easy for Sterling
And while Neville praised former Liverpool forward Sterling, he also singled out Cech for criticism.
"It's going to take (Unai) Emery three or four transfer windows to sort this out,” Neville said.
“So he shouldn't be too hard on himself in the first 15 minutes.
“But that was too easy for Sterling and the goalkeeper doesn't cover himself in glory either.”
Arsenal signed five players in the summer transfer window - all of whom were brought in to strengthen their defence.
But today they went up against a City team that scored 106 goals in 38 league games on their charge to the title last term.
And the hosts had no response to City’s press as Bernardo Silva made it 2-0 after the break.
Cech himself had a miserable afternoon, with his distribution coming under scrutiny.
And with goalkeeper Bernd Leno signed at the start of the summer, Cech may feel his place is now under threat.
Goalscorer Sterling spoke after the game and said: "I couldn't wait for my holidays to finish. I needed to get back and I'm really happy I could be involved today. I wanted to play and it's great that we got three points.
"We did the job we needed to do. There were some scary patches but it's a great start to come here and get three points.”