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Jamie Carragher delivers brutal Mikel Arteta Arsenal verdict with Jose Mourinho comparison

Jamie Carragher speaking on Sky Sports
-Credit: (Image: Sky Sports)


Jamie Carragher believes Arsenal are trying to win the Premier League title in the style of Jose Mourinho - without having Manchester City's attacking quality.

Arsenal have dropped to fifth place in the Premier League after the 1-0 defeat at Newcastle United last weekend. Mikel Arteta's team were unable to revert Alexander Isak's first-half opener at St James' Park.

Results elsewhere also went against the Gunners, who are now seven points off leaders Liverpool. That was Arsenal's third game without a win after the draw and defeat against Liverpool and Bournemouth respectively.

While results on the pitch appear to have dropped, sporting director Edu is set to depart the club after handing in his resignation on Monday. Speaking on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football ahead of Fulham's game with Brentford, Carragher expressed his concern for Arsenal by making a comparison between Pep Guardiola and Mourinho.

He said: "Listen, Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho are the two most dominant and successful managers in the last 15 to 20 years. But they're both at both ends of the spectrum in terms of style of football. You look at the players they've brought in and it's moving towards Jose Mourinho. Again, it's not a criticism for Arsenal or Mikel Arteta, it's analysis because this is a guy who's won the Premier League three times. Arsenal haven't won the Premier League for 20 years so it's just where he's taking them.

"If you think of Jose Mourinho as a manager, if he took over my club, what would I think I was getting? My first thinking would be my team are going to be strong defensively, no doubt about that. Arsenal are strong defensively. Height and strength and power in my team, we've just highlighted that about the size and the power in this Arsenal team - that's what you get from Mourinho and that's what you're getting from Arsenal right now.

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"Set piece reliance at times, think how powerful [Didier] Drogba and John Terry were at Chelsea, that's exactly the same at Arsenal. We've just highlighted that at times, Arsenal and the goalkeeper are going direct, how often did we see Petr Cech go direct to Didier Drogba and knock it down to Frank Lampard? The one thing we should also say that Arsenal are not like Jose Mourinho is winning trophies.

"If Jose Mourinho's watching tonight and he'll see that, he will say but I win trophies. At the moment, Arsenal haven't won a trophy but they've been fantastic, the football they've played superb and how they're going about it. But anyone who thinks I've just plotted this Jose Mourinho thing out to sort of create negativity around Arsenal, it's analysing exactly where Arsenal are going.

"If people don't agree with that, I don't think you're actually watching what's going on with Arsenal right now. I think Mikel Arteta feels he doesn't have the attacking quality that Manchester City have so he's going another way to try and win the league just by being strong defensively and a more powerful team."