Jamie Carragher is confident that Arsenal shouldn’t fear any side this season – but believes one player could still be a ‘threat’ to them in the Premier League title race.
Arsenal have flown out to the gates in the early portion of the season, with Mikel Arteta’s side sitting six points clear at the top of the table after only ten games.
A remarkable defensive record, which has seen the Gunners concede only three goals in their opening ten games, has once proved the foundation for Arsenal’s superb performances.
But the summer signings of Eberechi Eze, Martin Zubimendi and Viktor Gyokeres have provided the north London side with an even greater thrust in the middle of the park, as well as a clinical edge between the posts.
Last year’s champions Liverpool, have shown signs of life with back-to-back wins over Aston Villa and Real Madrid in the past four days.
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But it remains to be seen if Arne Slot’s side can rediscover the same consistency that saw that romp to the league title last season after a summer of upheaval.
Manchester City, meanwhile, are currently Arsenal’s closest challengers, moving into second place after a 3-1 win over Bornemouth last weekend.
But defeats already this season to Villa, Brighton and Tottenham have demonstrated that Pep Guardiola’s side are still not the same all-conquering side that won four-straight titles under the Spaniard.
City are still full of quality, most notably through their talismanic striker Erling Haaland, who has already notched up a staggering 13 goals in his first ten league games.
And Carragher believes that it is the Norwegian international alone who presents one of the only threats to Arsenal’s title charge if he can maintain his remarkable level of output for the entire season.
‘I think the biggest threat to Arsenal is Erling Haaland, not so much Manchester City, really,’ Carragher said on Sky Sports.
‘It just feels like, not so much a one-man team, but I’ll go back to a quote used by Pep Guardiola to describe Tottenham under Mauricio Pochettino when he called them the ‘Harry Kane team’.
‘And that was supposed ot be a compliment, no doubt about that, but right now it does feel like Manchester City are the Erling Haaland team.
‘If there was anything to happen to him for any length of time, maybe four to six weeks if he had an injury, I don’t think there’d be any way that Manchester City could win the title.
‘Right now, I don’t think it’s Liverpool who fear Arsenal fear, or Manchester City, it’s that man Erling Haaland.’
Speaking about the 25-year-old after his brace against Bournemouth, Guardiola insisted that Haaland’s goalscoring could now be compared to that of Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi in their respective primes.
‘This is what it’s like if you play with Messi or Ronaldo, his influence is so big,’ Guardiola said. ‘You see the numbers of that guy? Of course he’s that level.
‘Messi and Ronaldo have done it for 15 years, but this is the level. The first goal, the way he shoots the ball, it’s like “I am going to score”.
‘He has that hunger. It’s top. I said how incredibly coachable and manageable he is.’
However, while his side are improving, the Spaniard conceded it may be hard to overturn Arsenal’s early lead given their current form.
‘We are six points behind Arsenal, who look unstoppable right now because they play fantastic,’ Guardiola said.
‘They don’t concede goals, they are so solid, they can score from many different situations, positions and many players.
‘But even with that, I think when we make this step a little bit better [more players start scoring], we will be closer, games will be more tighter and we will be able to win.’
City face a huge clash against Liverpool at home on Sunday as they look to keep pace with Arsenal, while also putting some distance between themselves and the defending champions.
Arsenal, meanwhile, will look to make it nine consecutive clean sheets in all competitions when they visit Sunderland on the Saturday evening.
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