With Mikel Arteta defiant over Arsenal’s Premier League title ambitions, former Liverpool vice-captain Jamie Carragher is fearful that the manager is already beyond his peak with the Gunners.
Arsenal endured a weekend to forget as they are now 11 points behind league leaders Liverpool, albeit with a game in hand. There are still 12 matches to go – 11 for the Merseysiders – but while opportunities to overcome the deficit are dwindling, Arteta is no less confident his team can still have their glory.
“Over my dead body,” he told the media about giving up already. “If not, I’ll go home. Mathematically, it’s possible.
“You are there, you have to play every game. Suddenly, three days ago, we could close the gap and you are like, you are one and a half games away. It doesn’t matter. We have to continue to go.”
Throughout the year the Gunners boss has had to contend with serious injury problems, particularly across his front line with Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus now ruled out for the remainder of the season, plus Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli have faced significant spells on the sidelines.
This is compared to previous campaigns, during which the Gunners pushed Manchester City to within five points in 2022/23 and two points in 2023/24 of winning the title.
“I was looking at Arsenal and I actually think they’ve been a bit unlucky. Sometimes it’s about timing and the Arsenal of last season, if that’s playing this season, this is a real fight between Liverpool and Arsenal to the wire,” Carragher has now said upon reflection.
The pundit was speaking on The Overlap‘s latest fan debate, and he explained the similarities between the present Gunners side and teams he was part of at Anfield.
“Last season you’re at your best but City are still City. City have had their drop-off this season and the worry for Arsenal – and I take it back to when I played for Liverpool – under Arteta he’s been there for five years and every year you get better.
“You get to that point and we got there under [Gerard] Houllier, we got there under [Rafael] Benitez, and when you don’t make that final step we just dropped off massively.
“I think we have actually [already seen peak Arsenal] – last season under Arteta was the best, I thought Arsenal were brilliant. As good as anybody in Europe, and I was watching them every week. This was a proper team.”
What’s more, the former defender feels Arteta’s team are less likely to return to challenge in the 2025/26 season. He finished: “We were talking after the [Man City vs Liverpool] game yesterday, I still think Liverpool are gonna win the league – who’s gonna challenge the champions next season? I think I’d probably still back Manchester City more than Arsenal right now.”
