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Jamie Carragher Claps Back at Arsenal Fans Who Did Not Read His Full Telegraph Piece

Arsenal, Jamie Carragher, Mikel Arteta

Jamie Carragher has been seen as one of football’s most prominent pundits in modern football. From being a mainstay on the pre-game show for the Champions League with Thierry Henry, Micah Richards and Kate Scott, to being a pundit for Sky Sports in the Premier League.

The retired Liverpool defender is also well known for his controversial takes. Take, for example, his comment about how Mohamed Salah would need to win the Champions League in order to win the Ballon D’or. His main reason for this was saying that the African Cup of Nations isn’t seen as a major tournament by voters. The comments received an incredible amount of backlash, especially from Pundits like Micah Richards and Daniel Sturridge, who expressed irritation at Carragher not considering AFCON a major tournament.

The controversy seemed to have ended then and there. There was one person who seemingly got the last laugh when the African Football Federation, or the CAF, announced Morocco as the winners of the tournament in spite of the fact that Senegal won the final on penalties. The reasoning given by them, since Senegal staged a walk-off during the match, it could be viewed as an act of forfeiture, and hence Morocco should have won the final. The decision sparked discussion regarding corruption and unseriousness within the federation, and even Carragher chose to gain some vindication by reacting to the news.

The post was essentially a response to talk about how his comments regarding AFCON not being a serious tournament were proven right.

Now that we have a basic understanding of Jamie and his tendency to stir the pot, we must talk about his recent ongoing beef with Arsenal fans.

The controversy essentially starts from an article in The Telegraph, where he talks about how the current Arsenal team have managed to achieve the impossible, viz., making supporters support Manchester City in their hunt for a trophy. This, of course, applies not just to the upcoming Carabao Cup final today, but also to this season’s title race.

A big reason for the support for Manchester City in their era of winning 6 titles in 7 years is that whenever a dominant team surfaces and causes havoc, there will always be fans who will want them to be dethroned. It’s a classic case of David and Goliath. In the case of Man City, Carragher assumes that fans supported the strongest challenger for them in that era. The team being Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool. However, it must be seen that even though many fans hated the dominance they all did get used to the stylish brand of football played vy Pep that would see City come out on top quite frequently.

“Since 2019, Premier League audiences have become accustomed to the league being won by a purer brand of football.”

Carragher’s main reason for people not being in favour of this current Arsenal team stems from something that has been discussed at length by fans. The fact that it seems to be that the current Arsenal team, the seemingly final form of an 8-year long project, has managed to keep itself in all competitions, even though they play what is a more indirect style of football that focuses less on stylish passing and scoring and more on intentionally winning corners and free kicks to create goal-scoring chances. A stark difference from many sides and the end result of their projects. Kompany’s Bayern, Enrique’s PSG or Ferguson’s ManUtd are all known for playing a free-flowing brand of football.

The article eventually culminates in talking about how if Arsenal do end up lifting titles while playing a “Primitive” style of football, they may not be respected, but they will be looked upon in begrudged admiration and how the prospect of Arsenal winning trophies would be too much for rival fans to bear. Something that we must admit all great winning teams have earned.

Many fans took to Twitter to react to talk about this article and call out Jamie Carragher. One thing that fans pointed out was his implication that many people supported Liverpool during City’s 4-peat era. However, many fans debunked this by talking about how a lot of rival fans, such as Manchester United, supported City in order to see Liverpool not lift a title.

Carragher himself read these particular reactions and responded to them by explaining how his comments were not just because of Arsenal as a team but also because of how the fanbase has acted throughout the season. He talked about how people may not have supported Liverpool, but they still did admire them for the dynamic style of football that they were known to play. Something which, according to him, hasn’t been the case for this Arsenal side.

Carragher also explained in a reply to a tweet about how there is a difference between fans rooting for Manchester City in the past and how this year it’s just that the fans want them to beat Arsenal. In a way, where fans would just want to see football not going back to it’s primitive roots like Arsenal’s football style suggests.

It is easy to read the article and then say Carragher has only negative things to say about the current Arsenal team. However, that would be the conclusion of someone that simply skimmed over the article and didn’t read the fine print. There is one particular piece in the article that specifically talks about how at the end of the day, credit must be given to Mikel Arteta’s ability to build this project and to be able to mould the team to perfectly play the style that he imagined.

“For Arteta to be competing intensely on four fronts is a tribute to his foresight and his courage to completely rebrand the team. This transformation has prompted me regularly to compare Arteta with José Mourinho’s Chelsea sides, which were also unpopular with neutrals – a point John Obi Mikel conveniently seemed to forget when attacking Arsenal’s style earlier this week. Like Mourinho’s Chelsea, the current Arsenal are unafraid to be more pragmatic than flamboyant, building their title charge on a robust defensive structure rather than prioritizing elaborate, flowing attacking patterns.”

Even Twitter User LeGrove was praising Carragher’s piece in the article and how it is a clear sign of appreciation for Arteta.-“This @Carra23 piece getting way too much heat because people haven’t read it. Bit of a love letter to Arteta, really nice job. I’ll always take a pragmatic winner over an artistic loser.”

Jamie himself appreciated the tweet the fan for understanding the true meaning behind the tweet.

So, with all the information at hand, where do we really stand with the question of Arsenal’s legacy at the end of this season? Arsenal are the perfect example of a team that focuses on what works for them. A team that has gone through their fair share of heartbreak over the last three seasons, and when we look at it through that angle, it might not be wrong to say that they have a reason for completely changing their style of play.

Arsenal may not be remembered along the sides of legendary teams like The Invincibles,’08 United or Treble City however, when all is said and done and if the chips fall in the way they seem to be falling right now, Arsenal will be the team that will have broken a heartbreaking trophyless run with a league title and a league cup at the bare minimum.

A few many dates with destiny await the Gunners as they prepare to head into the run-in for winning the PL, facing Sporting for a shot at the UCL and a final today against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup at Wembley.

Will the ground that has witnessed many stories and heartbreaks write another chapter today? Only time will tell.

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