Jamie Carragher has revealed why he is concerned about Arsenal’s prospects in the Premier League title race moving forward after what he witnessed in Mikel Arteta’s side’s clash with Sporting CP in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
The Gunners limped to a 1-0 victory in the Portuguese capital, courtesy of a 91st-minute winner from Kai Havertz. The German drifted into the box late on, before slotting past Rui Silva following excellent work from Gabriel Martinelli.
The result puts Arsenal in an excellent position heading into the second leg at the Emirates, although the manner of the performance in Lisbon will certainly concern Arteta.
Jamie Carragher reveals Arsenal concerns following Sporting victory
Arsenal took just eight shots in Lisbon, accumulating just 1.3 expected goals. While they were able to control the game through possession, this was another somewhat lacklustre attacking display from Arteta’s men.
They’ll certainly need to turn their performances up a notch if they want to win the Premier League title and reach the final of the Champions League in Budapest. Speaking on CBS Sports Golazo after the game, pundit Carragher highlighted these concerns, arguing that the result shouldn’t paper over the disappointing nature of the performance.
“It was a big game, but it wasn’t a great performance,” he said.
“What I’m saying is, yes they won, and the big thing for them is to win. It almost puts it away; we lost two, and now we’ve won a game of football.
“But it wasn’t a great performance. If Havertz hits the post… it’s not a great performance where they played fantastic football, was it? They’ve won the game, no problem.
“But if you think they play like that between now and the end of the season, that they’ll win the league? We’ll see.”
Arsenal needed this result more than the performance
After consecutive cup defeats, Arsenal simply needed to put an end to the rot and win in Lisbon. While performance is normally paramount when projecting forward, the result was all that mattered at the Jose Alvalade Stadium.
The Gunners didn’t really need to win the game in the context of the tie, and they played like it. However, in the context of their season, for the vibes and morale around N5, they desperately needed to come away from Portugal victorious.
| Sporting CP | Statistic | Arsenal |
| 44% | Possession | 56% |
| 11 | Total shots | 8 |
| 5 | Shots on target | 5 |
| 3 | Corners | 4 |
| 3 | Saves | 5 |
| 1 | Yellow cards | 0 |
Carragher is right; this level of performance won’t cut it for the rest of the season. However, Arsenal know they can play much better than they did in this game, and it should give them confidence to start producing more accomplished displays moving forward.
The feel-good factor has returned to Arteta’s camp, and they can now go into the Bournemouth match buoyed by the chance to go 12 points clear, rather than frightened at the prospect of losing their nine-point cushion.
