Arsene Wenger Hits Out at 'TV Personalities' After Gary Neville's Arsenal Swipe

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger hit out at "TV personalities" after his side's listless performance in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday was criticised by Sky Sports co-commentator Gary Neville.

Neville was critical of the Gunners' performance in the 3-0 defeat to Manchester City, describing players as "spineless," and Wenger appeared to respond following the game, per Metro's Sean Kearns:

"When you lose a game like that everything is questioned. TV personalities when you don't win a game—it's questioned.

"We played against a good side, you cannot say it's an average side. They dominate the Premier League.

"Some of them [pundits] have been players and I know them. They have not always played at 200 per cent [themselves]."

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Per MailOnline's Robert Summerscales, Neville hit out at Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Ozil and Granit Xhaka for walking after Arsenal went 2-0 down through City captain Vincent Kompany's goal in the 58th minute.

When David Silva put the final nail in the coffin seven minutes later, the former Manchester United star said:

"A minute before that goal I mentioned the walking and then the retreating runs of Ramsey and Xhaka ambling and jogging back...absolute disgrace they are. They are an absolute disgrace. Walking on a football pitch at Wembley, giving up...spineless."

Football writer John Brewin shared a picture of a young Arsenal fan who was brought to tears after the third goal:

Neville responded to the sight: "Look at that. That's what you cause. All a fan wants to see is a player running as fast as he can and as hard as he can."

It was a day to forget for the Gunners, a refrain that has become increasingly common over the past decade.

Wenger even faced an issue with fourth official Graham Scott. "The referee doesn't give the injury time," Wenger said, per Football365. "When I said 'why don't you give more time?' he asked me 'why do I want more time?' I said 'it's not down to you to judge how much time.'"

As The Independent's Miguel Delaney noted in the first half, the Sky Blues were far from their best:

Despite that, they went in at the break 1-0 up thanks to Sergio Aguero's opener. Arsenal had scarcely troubled them.

The Gunners' best chance came early on when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was picked out at close range, but a combination of Kyle Walker's intervention and Claudio Bravo's save denied him.

As Squawka Football demonstrated, that was the only opportunity Arsenal created in the entire match:

Football writer James McNicholas believes Arsenal's performance, poor as it was, was par for the course:

The Gunners have enjoyed domestic cup success in recent years, winning the FA Cup three times since 2014, but it speaks volumes that even in spite of that record, it came as little surprise the team produced the showing they did.

City may be a slightly exceptional case given they are a class apart from every team in the Premier League, but the enormous gulf between the sides was on display on Sunday, and the Gunners—though they are capable of beating anyone on their day—seem to be falling behind all of their rivals too.

They are eight points behind nearest rivals Chelsea, and their game in hand over the fifth-place Blues is against City on Thursday.

It would be typical of the Gunners to beat the Sky Blues—and if they want to finish in the top four, they need to—but even if they do, it wouldn't erase the showing they produced on Sunday or the need for change at the Emirates Stadium.