Arsenal stars dominate Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher’s team of the year - but disagreements in attack
Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard were both named in each Sky Sports pundits’ chosen XIs
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Your support makes all the difference.One of the more anticipated moments of the end of each Premier League season from a fan perspective is the team of the year selections by Sky Sports duo Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher - a choice which seems to always generate plenty of debate.
Following the Aston Villa against Liverpool draw on Monday Night Football, the pair revealed their selections and, while most choices would be fully expected, one or two names perhaps come under the category of surprising or questionable.
A particular highlight was Carragher’s choice to go with a 3-2-4-1 set-up with no full-backs or wing-backs, but while there was plenty of overlap in chosen starters, some curious changes were brought up.
There were seven selections agreed upon in the XI by the duo: Arsenal centre-backs William Saliba and Gabriel, a midfield three of Martin Odegaard, Rodri and Declan Rice, plus Cole Palmer and Phil Foden as two of three in attack.
As a result, the differences came in goal, at full-back and at centre-forward, with the full choices of each below.
Gary Neville’s team of the year
Goalkeeper: Emi Martinez (Aston Villa)
Defence: Ben White (Arsenal), Saliba (Arsenal), Gabriel (Arsenal), Destiny Udogie (Tottenham)
Midfield: Odegaard (Arsenal), Rodri (Man City), Rice (Arsenal)
Forwards: Palmer (Chelsea), Erling Haaland (Man City), Foden (Man City)
Jamie Carragher’s team of the year
Goalkeeper: Jordan Pickford (Everton)
Defence: Saliba (Arsenal), Gabriel (Arsenal), Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
Midfield: Odegaard (Arsenal), Rodri (Man City), Rice (Arsenal), Kevin de Bruyne (Man City)
Forwards: Palmer (Chelsea), Watkins (Aston Villa), Foden (Man City)
There were a few laughs at Neville’s choice of goalkeeper following Martinez’s first-minute own goal against Liverpool earlier in the show, and Carragher had taken him out of his team following the errors in the match on Monday night.
“It was a toss-up between Martinez and Pickford. Jordan Pickford has the most clean sheets apart from David Raya,” the former Liverpool defender said.
“You can’t take that mistake out for Martinez. He was at fault for the second one as well!”
But otherwise the main talking point was Carragher’s inclusion of De Bruyne despite only playing 1,000 minutes in the league this term.
There was also a brief look at how their pre-season predictions panned out, with Andoni Iraola from Carragher and Andre Onana for Neville being chosen as ones to watch - the latter certainly proving one to watch across the course of the campaign, though not always in the manner he perhaps originally intended.
Most of the rest have yet to be determined, including title-winners and top scorer, but both chose Manchester United to finish third which has transpired to be wildly optimistic given their season-long showing.
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