Jamie Carragher has advised Mikel Arteta is popping into the subsequent Jose Mourinho moderately than the brand new Pep Guardiola.
Arsenal had been held to a 2-2 draw by Liverpool on Tremendous Sunday after dominating the primary half.
The Gunners, derailed by accidents to Gabriel and Jurrien Timber, had been pegged again after the break, with the sport following an analogous sample to their attracts with Brighton and Man Metropolis adopted by the current defeat to Bournemouth.
“I’m starting to worry about Arsenal’s mentality now,” concluded Sky Sports activities’ Roy Keane.
“When they get themselves in front, they sit back, instead of going after the third goal. Liverpool were there for the taking if they wanted it. I just worry about their belief, do they have the belief that they can really challenge Manchester City?”
In mitigation, all of Arsenal’s earlier setbacks this season have occurred when diminished to 10 gamers and so they performed for a big chunk of the second half towards Liverpool – who entered the weekend’s fixtures prime of the desk – with a makeshift again 4 of Thomas Partey, Ben White, Jakub Kiwior and Myles Lewis-Skelly.
“The interesting thing about watching Arsenal, and I have been thinking about this for a long time, because Mikel Arteta worked with Pep Guardiola we have been thinking that he is a Pep Guardiola disciple,” Carragher mentioned.
“But if you think about the two most successful managers in the last 15 years then you have Pep Guardiola over here and Jose Mourinho over here.
“Mikel Arteta is slowing morphing right into a Jose Mourinho sort of supervisor. No person actually thought that was going to occur. Immediately, they retreated within the second half.”
Has Arteta calculated solely his defence can win the title?
Regardless of making a tough begin to the season, with any momentum curtailed by a spate of accidents and three purple playing cards in 9 video games, Arsenal stay 5 factors off the summit.
And Carragher believes that Arteta’s ‘Mourinhoesque’ ways could also be deliberate design.
“This is not a criticism, this is an observation of where Arsenal are at as a team. Maybe it is because Arteta has looked at his attacking players and thought ‘we’re not as good as Manchester City, we have to win the league by being the best team defensively.’ And that’s what they were last season and possibly still are.
“However this concept that Arsenal play nice soccer and he’s a Pep Guardiola man, he isn’t. Simply have a look at the gamers taking place at the moment, the secrecy earlier than the sport about who was match and who wasn’t. It is all out of the Jose Mourinho playbook.”
