Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has claimed that Arsenal’s attack is not good enough to win the Premier League.
When he made this observation, Jamie Carragher was speaking in his Sky Sports segment.
This observation from the defender-turned-pundit is a result of Arsenal’s recent woes which has seen them fail to gain maximum points from their last three Premier League outings.
Earlier in 2023/24, the Gunners looked like their selves from the 2022/23 season, in which they gave Manchester City a run for their money and were top of the Premier League for over 90 percent of the season.
Along the line, they fell by the wayside and have now returned to their usual top four battling selves which they became in the last decade of Arsene Wenger’s tenure as their manager.
This much is evident from their recent run, which has seen them pick up just one point from a possible nine, by drawing one and losing two of their last three games. The draw came against Liverpool, who showed grit to defeat Newcastle United at Anfield on New Year’s Day 2024. That came after Fulham defeated the Gunners at Craven Cottage on New Year’s Eve.
In that game, Carragher’s point could be seen clearly as Arsenal struggled to make the most of the chances they were able to create after struggling hard.
“They got in front against Fulham but they didn’t create too much after that”, Carragher said. “You thought they would go on to win the game comfortably but Fulham were outstanding.”
“Arsenal have a problem defensively as they look really stretched with [Jurrien] Timber being out and [Takehiro] Tomiyasu only just coming back, [Oleksandr] Zinchenko missed the game.”
“Set-piece wise, they’re usually so strong at both ends of the pitch so it was really a result off the back of the West Ham game. They’re two fixtures you look at and you think they should get at least four points – probably six – so to come out of it with nothing is a big blow for them.”
“No, they need to be scoring more from open play”, Carragher continued. “On a recent MNF with Freddie Ljungberg, we were almost debating this different Arsenal. And it is a different Arsenal to the one we saw last season.”
“My feeling then was that if the attacking front three or four didn’t improve, I felt Arsenal wouldn’t win the league. I still believe that.”
Arsenal are now level on points with Manchester City after entering December 2023 six points clear of the defending champions. They currently sit in fourth place and are in danger of dropping out of the top four as they are one point ahead of their North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
Their next opportunity is against Crystal Palace when the league resumes from its break in late January.
