Jamie Carragher suggested Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard have not reached the level he expected them and said Arsenal were lacking quality in the final third.
After an FA Cup interlude, Arsenal’s focus switches back to Premier League football this week with a trip to Molineux on Wednesday but a first title in over 20 years is not looking as sure as it once did following a 1-1 draw away at Brentford.
Arsenal have the best defence in the league but trail Manchester City in terms of goals scored and Carragher said that rather than any mentality issue, which is often levelled at Mikel Arteta’s side, it is a lack of quality in the opposition box that hurts them.
“I made a comment about Arsenal about a month ago on the back of picking my Premier League team of the season so far,” Carragher said on The Overlap.
“People talk about their mentality – I actually think Arsenal have great mentality. But their problem could be a lack of quality in the final third.”
On that point, Carragher suggested that Arsenal lack a “superstar” in their forward line and said Saka and Odegaard had not developed into that.
“When I watch Arsenal, I don’t think they’ve got an absolute superstar in the front four or five players.
“I thought Saka and Odegaard were going to get there a few years ago. I thought they were ready to almost become the best players in the Premier League. I still don’t think Arsenal have got one of them.”
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Carragher was joined by Wayne Rooney who countered by suggesting a title-winner in the modern era does not need a superstar.
“I agree that they haven’t got an out-and-out superstar that’s world class, a player you pin everything on,” he said. “But what I think what we’ve seen over the last three years is they know how to win games. So they’ve shown you actually don’t need that.
“And so you look at Arsenal quality-wise, I think they’ve got a lot of quality. Have they got that superstar, you know, Ronaldo or Drogba, Aguero type player who’s going to make a difference? I don’t think they have but you know how to win games, and you’ve shown that over the last two years.”
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