Gary Neville: Julian Alvarez Could Make Arsenal Champions League Winners
Arsenal’s title defence is only two games old, but the noise around north London is already deafening. A Community Shield win over Manchester City, a 3-0 dismantling of newly-promoted Coventry, and a squad that looks deeper and sharper than at any point under Mikel Arteta.
Yet Gary Neville still sees one missing piece.
The former Manchester United defender believes that if Arsenal somehow prise Julian Alvarez away from Atletico Madrid in the final days of the window, the Premier League champions would not just retain their crown – they would conquer Europe.
“What a squad [Mikel Arteta] has built,” Neville said on Sky Sports. “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 £170m Question
Arsenal are not alone in admiring Alvarez. Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain are also tracking the Argentina international, whose stock has soared during his time at Atletico.
The problem? Atletico do not want to play ball.
Club CEO Miguel Angel Gil made their stance brutally clear earlier in the summer, insisting they did not want to sell the forward and would not even accept £170m for him. That figure underlines both Alvarez’s importance in Madrid and the size of the gamble any bidder would have to take.
Neville, though, believes Arsenal should still test that resolve if they are serious about climbing to the very top of the European game.
Arteta’s Focus: Connection Over Galácticos
Arteta, speaking after the 3-0 win over Coventry, struck a more measured tone. The Arsenal manager insisted his priority remains internal improvement, not a transfer-market jackpot.
“The main focus has to be to improve our players and the connection between them,” he said, pointing to how rarely Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Ben White actually played together down the right last season because of injuries.
Arteta’s point was clear: there is still significant upside within this squad before anyone starts dreaming about £170m forwards.
Neville, though, keeps circling back to Odegaard – and what the Norwegian could become with a different type of striker 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 argued.
“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.”
The message is blunt: Arsenal’s captain is already one of the league’s standout creators, but a penalty-box predator would turn his passing into something even more devastating.
Carragher: Missing a World-Class Forward – For Now
Jamie Carragher sees the same gap in Arsenal’s attack, even if he is more optimistic about the club’s current stars closing it themselves.
“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 then went in a different direction to Neville. For him, the psychological leap of being champions might be more valuable than any superstar signing.
“The psychological factor of being champions now will take this Arsenal team to another level rather than buying a superstar player,” he added.
One pundit wants a statement signing. The other trusts the champions’ mentality to do the lifting.
Odegaard, Tzolis and a New-Look Arsenal Front Line
On the pitch, Arsenal are already starting to look refreshed. At the Emirates, Coventry felt the full force of a re-energised attack.
“Vinicius Jr this, Morgan Rogers that... Arsenal have shown that their transfer window was better than many made out,” wrote Sky Sports’ Sam Blitz from the ground.
Christos Tzolis, in particular, caught the eye. The winger needed five quiet minutes to settle. Then he erupted. Two shots, two chances created in four minutes, and the entire left flank belonged to him.
The pressure told quickly. Tzolis won the ball high up the pitch for one goal, then whipped in the cross for Saka to finish for another. Coventry never recovered.
Odegaard, though, stitched it all together. Fresh from a standout display in the Community Shield, he opened his league account with a crisp finish, already matching his Premier League tally from last season – a campaign in which he missed 30 matches in all competitions.
This was only the second time since December 2024 that Saka, Odegaard and Havertz had started together. All three scored. That is the kind of detail that makes coaches and analysts sit up.
“Odegaard is like a new signing,” Blitz observed. And with three open-play goals on the board already, Arsenal do not just look like champions pacing themselves. They look like a side trying on a new attacking identity.
So the question hangs over north London as the window ticks down: is this version of Arsenal, sharpened from within, enough to chase down Europe’s elite – or does the road to the Champions League trophy really run through a near-impossible move for Julian Alvarez?
