Carragher claims it will be 'very difficult' for Arsenal to win Champions League
Jamie Carragher believes Mikel Arteta would be better served focusing on retaining the Premier League title rather than chasing Champions League glory again this season.
Arsenal fell to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final back in May, and Arteta wasted little time in setting out his ambitions to go again. Earlier this month, ahead of the Gunners' league phase clash with Lille, the Spaniard described the Budapest defeat as the 'best medicine' for his side and said he wanted to 'play the lottery again and win' the competition.
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Carragher, speaking on an episode of the Fan Debate on The Overlap, drew on his own conversation with Arne Slot to explain why he thinks the Premier League, not Europe, should be Arsenal's priority.
Carragher's comparison to Liverpool
“I actually spoke to Arne Slot at the end of his first season [at Liverpool],” Carragher said. “I did an interview with him, and it was interesting that he was talking about how often we only win by one goal. It was almost that feeling of like, 'We can have better attackers,' you know, basically relying on Mo [Salah].
“Even though Liverpool won the league, he was like, 'I want more than this. I want better football than this.' Then the players came in, and for lots of different reasons, it fell apart the season after.
“It just made me think about Arsenal, but it also makes me think the next step, surely, for you is to retain the title. I don't think Arsenal have done that since the 30s.
“So, when I do watch you play, I think it'd be very difficult for you to win the Champions League. And I know you're going to say to me, 'We only lost on penalties', but last year, your run in terms of who you played was very, very favourable.
“It will be very difficult to get that run again. But is it a case of right now, forget the Champions League, we just want to win the league again?”
A demanding run of fixtures
Arsenal have not retained the Premier League title since the 1934/35 season, a stat Carragher pointed to directly. The club's last Champions League final appearance before this year came in 2006, and they are yet to win the competition outright.
Arteta's side face a demanding stretch of fixtures regardless of which competition takes priority. Arsenal travel to Slavia Praha in the Champions League next week, sandwiched between a trip to Anfield to face Liverpool and a home league meeting with Hull City at the Emirates Stadium.
How Arteta balances those two ambitions, domestic consistency and another European push, is likely to define how this Arsenal season is remembered.
