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Gary Neville says the “next step” for Premier League winners Arsenal is to lift the Champions League, but they are “special” underdogs against Paris Saint-Germain.
Arsenal ended their 22-year wait for a title last week after Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City slipped to Bournemouth in the final week of the season.
Mikel Arteta’s side now have the chance to join only Manchester United and Man City in winning the Premier League and Champions League in the same season, but Neville warned how difficult it will be against Paris Saint-Germain, who are looking to win the competition in back-to-back years.
“It’s an incredible opportunity to expand beyond what you can imagine as an Arsenal fan, because they’ve never won that trophy. And it’s the next step to winning a league,” he said.
“I’m really happy for them for what they’ve achieved this week, they should celebrate it, and they have. But now they’ve got a Champions League final, if they can win next weekend, they’ll beat the best. They’ve got to beat a Luis Enrique Paris Saint-Germain team and a Pep Guardiola Manchester City team.
“If you’re going to win your first Premier League title for 22 years, go and beat the best of all time. If you’re going to win the Champions League, go and beat the current holders and one of the best managers Europe has seen in the last 10, 15 years.
“It’s going to be difficult for them. PSG are on a different level. They’ve got a manager who’s just a serial winner, with this fear inside them that they can do anything to win.
“Luis Enrique is probably the best manager in the world right now, with Pep Guardiola. This is his moment. Arsenal are going to play right up against that. If you can win back-to-back Champions Leagues, you put yourself on another planet. And that’s what he wants, he wants to break all the records.
“It’s going to be very difficult for Arsenal because they will be playing against a team that is special and they know how to do it.
But they know how to defend. They got themselves some matchwinners. Both teams are physically great. I’m really looking forward to it.
“I think PSG are the best team in Europe at the moment. Arsenal are coming in as underdogs and have to scrape and fight and hold the line to win.”
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The best bits of Arsenal celebrating after lifting the Premier League trophy for the first time in 22 years
Neville believes Arsenal’s title win ahead of their final game at Crystal Palace, where they rotate a lot, is ideal preparation for Saturday’s final.
He said: “You know what was so good for Arsenal? They won the title four, five days ago so that gives them extra days to prepare for this game.
“It’s important for them that they’ve got an extra four or five days. It gives them a free week now and five or six days of really good quality build-up.
“They are not in recovery mode, the players that will start against PSG.”
