Gary Neville: Julian Alvarez Could Make Arsenal Champions League Winners
Arsenal have opened the season like a team that remember exactly who they are. Community Shield winners against Manchester City, 3-0 victors over newly-promoted Coventry, the Emirates humming again.
And yet, in Gary Neville’s eyes, they’re still one signing short of becoming truly terrifying.
The Sky Sports pundit believes that if Arsenal somehow prise Julian Alvarez away from Atletico Madrid before the window closes, the Premier League champions would be transformed into Champions League winners. Not contenders. Winners.
“That would light this place up”
“What a squad Mikel Arteta has built,” Neville said, purring over the balance of Arsenal’s current group. “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.”
That “magic” is what Arsenal are still searching for at the top end of the pitch. Alvarez, currently at Atletico and an Argentina international, is high on the wish list of Arsenal, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain.
Atletico, though, have dug in. CEO Miguel Angel Gil said earlier in the summer they do not want to sell and would not even accept £170m for the forward. Neville’s message to Arsenal? Test that resolve anyway.
Arteta’s focus – and the Odegaard question
Arteta, speaking after the Coventry win, tried to keep the conversation on what he already has. The Arsenal manager stressed that “the main focus has to be to improve our players and the connection between them,” pointing out how rarely Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard and Ben White actually played together down the right last season because of injuries.
Neville sees the same thing – but from a different angle. For him, Odegaard is already operating at a level that demands a ruthless finisher in front of him.
“He is exceptional,” Neville said of the captain. “If there was an Ian Wright-type player up front for Arsenal who makes those short runs he'd be even better.
“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 argument is simple: Arsenal’s structure is elite, their creator is elite, but the runs in behind are not. Alvarez, in Neville’s view, changes that equation overnight.
Carragher: Arsenal still missing a world-class forward
Jamie Carragher shares the feeling that something is still missing in Arsenal’s attack. For him, the gap is in pure world-class quality 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, though, doesn’t see a superstar signing as the only path to another leap.
“The psychological factor of being champions now will take this Arsenal team to another level rather than buying a superstar player,” he added.
So while Neville is urging a huge late-window swing for Alvarez, Carragher is backing the current core to grow into that rarefied bracket themselves.
Odegaard, Tzolis and a refreshed Arsenal edge
On the pitch, the signs of evolution are already there.
At the Emirates, Sky Sports’ Sam Blitz watched an attack that looked sharper, livelier, and less predictable than it did for long stretches last season. Talk of missed targets like Vinicius Jr or Morgan Rogers has faded quickly; Arsenal’s actual business is starting to speak for itself.
Christos Tzolis, in particular, has jolted the left flank to life. After a quiet opening spell, he suddenly exploded into the game – two shots and two chances created in four frantic minutes. From that point, Coventry never really recovered.
It was no surprise to see him heavily involved in the two goals that killed the contest. He won the ball high up the pitch for the first, then delivered the cross for Saka to finish the second. A gem, and a livewire, exactly the kind of winger who unsettles defences even when the game seems to be drifting.
Odegaard, though, remains the conductor. He followed up his standout Community Shield display with his first league goal of the season, already matching last season’s Premier League tally after a campaign wrecked by injuries that cost him 30 games in all competitions.
This was only the second time since December 2024 that Saka, Odegaard and Havertz had all started together. All three scored against Coventry. That is not just balance; that is threat from every angle.
Odegaard feels like a new signing. With three open-play goals already on the board for the team, Arsenal look like a refreshed side, one with more variety and more incision.
Neville’s challenge lingers over all of it, though. If this is what Arsenal look like now, with the pieces still knitting together, what would they become with a ruthless, world-class striker like Julian Alvarez finishing those Odegaard passes in the biggest games in Europe?
