Mikel Arteta has suffered a difficult week with Arsenal eliminated from the Champions League and set to give champions Liverpool a guard of honour
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Jamie Carragher speaking on Sky Sports.
Jamie Carragher speaking on Sky Sports.(Image: James Gill - Danehouse/Getty Images)
Jamie Carragher has warned Mikel Arteta he must deliver silverware next season if he is to ensure his Arsenal legacy is not that of laying groundwork, rather than delivering success. And the Liverpool legend has rebuked the Spaniard for comments he made about the Premier League champions.
Arteta has won just the FA Cup in five years at Arsenal after seeing his side eliminated from the Champions League this week at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain. It follows on from the Gunners once again missing out on the Premier League title, with Arsenal set to give champions Liverpool a guard of honour at Anfield on Sunday.
Those failures have led to some questionable remarks from Arteta, who claimed that Liverpool won the title with fewer points than Arsenal's previous two runners-up seasons and that his team had been the best side in this year's Champions League despite being knocked out at the semi-final stage.
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Writing in his Telegraph column, Carragher claimed that Arteta's response has "left him open to ridicule".
He said: "One of the worrying signs of a manager under pressure is when interviews become more about validating work already done, fending off mounting criticism of the here and now amid increased questioning about what comes next.
"Some of Arteta’s most recent public comments have veered into that territory, making him sound more like a fan on social media perpetuating a series of complaints about injuries and refereeing decisions.
"His remarks about Arsenal deserving to beat Paris St-Germain over two legs in the Champions League semi-final left him open to ridicule.
"Luis Enrique’s side have been by far the best side in this year’s competition, and they showed their class in both games.
"Arteta comparing Liverpool’s title-winning performance to Arsenal’s runners-up spot in 2023 and 2024 on the eve of facing the new champions was not clever, either.
"If Liverpool win their next three games, they will finish on 91 points. That’s more than any Arsenal side in history, which is why Arteta’s observation in midweek about Arne Slot winning with fewer points after 35 games than Arsenal won after 38 in the past two years will be mocked.
"For the record, Arsenal had 80 points at the exact same stage a year ago, and 81 the year before, which would have put them in second place right now, too."
Carragher would go on to compare Arsenal to the Liverpool side he played in between 2001 and 2009, a team that lifted every major trophy available apart from the Premier League.
"The reality is we work in a sport which is all about outcomes, not ‘mitigating circumstances’ for falling short. Harsh as it sounds, judgments are based on the time and place in which you competed, not within their historical context," he explained.
"Between 2001-09, I played in a Liverpool team who won every major honour except one, consistently reached finals and were twice a runners-up in the Premier League. Every day someone on social media makes the same remark: 'You never won a league title'."Nobody cares about the fact we were up against Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsène Wenger’s ‘Invincibles’ and Roman Abramovich’s millions. We never won the league so end of story as far as everyone else is concerned.
"One club’s valid explanations for ‘failure’ are everyone else’s lame excuses. That is especially true with regard to injuries. We could go through many league seasons in which the runners-up could point to ‘if only’ moments."