Jamie Carragher has doubled down on his stance that Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal are morphing into a Jose Mourinho-styled team as the Gunners bid to win a first Premier League title in 20 years.
Arsenal’s title hopes were dealt another blow on Saturday as the North London outfit suffered a 1-0 defeat away to Newcastle. This has left Arteta’s team seven points behind leaders Liverpool after ten games and it is not looking likely that they will end their wait for an English top-flight title this season.
The Gunners were heavily criticised for their performance at St James’ Park as they looked flat and devoid of ideas. In addition to this, Arsenal have not looked at their best defensively, which is something the North London outfit prided themselves on last season.
Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher admitted earlier in the campaign that Arteta’s team are morphing into a Jose Mourinho-styled outfit and the former Liverpool star has now doubled down on this comment.
“Listen, Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho are the two most dominant and successful managers in the last 15 to 20, years,” Carragher said on Sky Sports ahead of Fulham’s match with Brentford.
“But they’re at both ends of the spectrum in terms of style of football. You look at the players brought in here; what’s the style they’re looking to get? It’s morphing towards Jose Mourinho.
“Now, again, it’s not a criticism of 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.
“But if you think of Jose Mourinho as a manager, if he took over my club, what would I think I was getting? My first thing would be thinking my team will be strong defensively. No doubt about that.
“Arsenal are strong defensively. [Also] height and strength and power in my team. We just highlighted that about the size and the power of this Arsenal team. That’s what you get from Mourinho. That’s what you’re getting from Arsenal right now.”
Jamie Carragher has a trophy dig at Arsenal
After explaining this, Caragher then went on to say that the difference between a Mourinho team and an Arteta team is that the Portuguese coach wins trophies.
Arsenal have won the FA Cup during the Spaniard’s reign, however, since rising back to the top of the Premier League, the North London club have yet to add to their trophy cabinet.
“The one thing that we should also say that Arsenal are not like Jose Mourinho is winning trophies,” Carragher said.” Now, if Jose Mourinho is watching tonight and sees that, he will say, ‘ but I win trophies.’
“At the moment, Arsenal haven’t won a trophy. They’ve been fantastic. The football they’ve played has been superb, and how they are going about it.
“But anyone who thinks I just plugged this Jose Mourinho thing out to sort of create negativity around Arsenal… It’s analyzing exactly where Arsenal are going.”
