Gary Neville has appealed to Premier League managers to introduce rolling substitutions while on commentary Arsenal5-2 win away to West Ham.

In the booth with Rob Hawthorne for Sky Sports, the Manchester United icon found himself frustrated by 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 allocation of five substitutes during their meeting at the London Stadium, as is common in English top-flight matches, but Neville found himself lamenting the length of time each substitution took.

“The rhythm of the game is just being 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 changes that could be made from three to five, but since then only three windows have been made available for those five changes.

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

Rolling substitutions is a rule in some sports that allows players to enter and leave the game for other players multiple times while the game continues to be played, usually during a break.

It’s an idea that Neville has suggested before and explained The overlap: “Let the fourth umpire handle the substitutions so the game doesn’t have to stop, and you can just go on and off.

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

Arsenal hero Ian Wright sided with Neville over his suggestion, explaining that the fourth official “can set up the board while the game is going on”.

Jamie Carragher, however, was less convinced that the rule change could work, declaring: “You (a player on the pitch) wouldn’t be looking at the bench would you?!”

In May, the Dutch Football Association proposed “flying substitutions” during a KNVB meeting which would operate in a similar way to Neville’s proposal, although there is no suggestion the pitch will go green anytime soon.