Gary Neville calls for major Premier League rule change in Arsenal's win over West Ham

Gary Neville has pleaded with Premier League chiefs to introduce rolling substitutions while on commentary for Arsenal’s 5-2 victory away to West Ham.

In the booth with Rob Hawthorne for Sky Sports, the Manchester United icon found himself frustrated with the slow pace of the second half, which he put down to the number of substitutions made by both sides.

Both Arsenal and West Ham used their full allocations of five substitutes during their meeting at the London Stadium, which is common in English top-flight matches, but Neville found himself lamenting the amount of time was taken for each change.

“The rhythm of the game just gets broken with all these subs,” Neville complained as the likes of Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus entered the pitch in the second period, with Arsenal already leading 5-2.

Ahead of the 2022/23 season, the league increased the number of substitutions that could be made from three to five, though since then only three windows were made available for those five changes.

There are additional opportunities to change players at half-time, which both Arsenal and West Ham utilised, as Gabriel was replaced by Jakub Kiwior and Crysensio Summerville went off for Edson Alvarez.

Rolling substitutions is a rule in some sports which allows players to enter and leave the game for other players several times while the game continues to be played, generally during a break in action.

It is an idea that Neville has proposed previously, explaining on The Overlap: “Let the fourth official manage substitutions so that the game doesn’t have to stop, and you can just run on and off.

“So basically, (Martin) Odegaard’s coming on for (Leandro) Trossard, the fourth official’s there, he gets a message to Trossard, ‘you’re off’ and Trossard comes off.”

Arsenal hero Ian Wright sided with Neville over his suggestion, explaining that the fourth official “could put the board up while the game’s going on”.

However, Jamie Carragher was not as convinced that the rule change could work, explaining: “You (a player on the pitch) wouldn’t look at the bench, would you?!”

In May, the Dutch FA proposed ‘flying substitutions’ during a KNVB meeting which would work in a similar fashion to Neville’s proposal, though there is no suggestion that the plan will be green-lit any time soon.