Arsenal gave their Premier League title chances a shot in the arm with a 5-1 thrashing of Crystal Palace on Saturday, but it was not enough to escape a warning from Jamie Carragher.
Gabriel Jesus scored twice to help his team move within three points of leaders Liverpool, albeit having played two games more than Arne Slot’s side. The fact they were able to dispatch Palace in such ruthless fashion even after the loss of Bukayo Saka to injury was even more impressive.
The win came after Mikel Arteta’s team had endured frustrating draws with Fulham and Everton in their past two league games, and the manner of the victory suggested they are starting to find their very best form during the busy festive schedule.
However, former Liverpool defender Carragher still thinks the Gunners could earn up being compared to Tottenham.
Speaking as a pundit on Sky Sports, Carragher said it is “crunch time” for Arteta after five years in the Arsenal job, with his team having fallen short in recent title races despite being in strong positions.
He compared those disappointments to those endured by Spurs, Newcastle United and Leeds United, who each saw exciting teams fail to get over the line in title battles.
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Jamie Carragher warns Mikel Arteta to ‘start delivering’
Carragher said of Arteta: “He’s done a great job, but now is the time to start winning trophies.
“They’ve been a brilliant team, but there’s been lots of brilliant teams in the Premier League era who we remember but they never won a trophy, like Leeds, Newcastle and Tottenham. This team doesn’t want to be remembered like that.
“This feels like a really big win. On the back of what has happened in the last couple of games, they have had a favourable run of fixtures so couldn’t afford to drop more points.
“They really need to get their season going in terms of stringing some results together and building belief that they can go and win this title.
“Arteta’s five-year anniversary that we are at now, we are starting to reach a real crunch time, they’ve got to start delivering the biggest trophies.
“They will be there or there about come the end of the season. If they don’t win it will feel like disappointment.”