Arsene Wenger has rejected criticism from Gary Neville that his transfer policy appeared "arrogant".
The Sky Sports pundit, speaking before Arsenal's goalless draw with Liverpool at the Emirates, questioned Wenger's use of wide players in the centre and suggested his failure to sign a defensive midfielder had cost his side Premier League glory.
"I've got great respect for Arsenal as a football club. Arsene Wenger's job is absolutely amazing," Neville said on Monday Night Football."But I just cannot get my head around why he would not sign players of power to assist these talented players that you've got to enable them to win the league."You sign (Mikel) Arteta and turn him into a midfield player, (Tomas) Rosicky signs as a wide player and you turn him into a midfield player, (Aaron) Ramsey plays midfield even though he's a wide midfield player. "It's a continual string of errors. It's the one big black mark that I've got over Arsene Wenger these last 10 years - why he hasn't identified the issue with these types of players in central midfield because they cannot win the league with these types of players. It can't happen.
"(Cesc) Fabregas couldn't defend so (Jose) Mourinho puts (Nemanja) Matic or Ramires alongside him."I think it's arrogance, I really do. To think that you're not going to adapt your team to change to impact on another team's strengths. It's either naive or arrogance because they keep losing this way."
Thierry Henry, joining Neville and Jamie Carragher in the studio, defended his former boss, saying: "I don't think it's arrogance, I think it's belief. Arsene and the players believe they can outplay teams." Wenger also shrugged off the criticism at his post-match press conference.
"I don't know what that has to do with arrogance," the Frenchman told reporters.
"I just try to do my job and I leave it to other people to assess my work.
"Everyone's entitled to their opinion. I could prove to you that it's not necessarily right but let's not go into that debate.
"When you don't win you're wrong. But I think I have enough experience and intelligence to know when it's right and when it's wrong."
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