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Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher says Mikel Arteta's claims about Arsenal don't add up after the Spaniard responded to his suggestion the Gunners are playing defensively and not being brave.
So far this season, Arsenal has lost at Liverpool and came from behind to draw with Manchester City. But the feeling in both matches was that had Arteta gone for it a bit more, his side might have come away with more points.
"I think he's done a brilliant job," Carragher said on the Stick To Football podcast, brought to you by Sky Bet. "He's spent a lot of money, but he has the best squad of players in the Premier League now.
"This isn't something we would accuse him of every week but it does feel like there are important moments, and he also chooses caution over courage. He always goes for that side of it.
"Arteta, you can argue is right [to say] 'We dominated Man City'. You can say that, but you can't get away from the fact that wasn't Liverpool at Anfield — that was Liverpool on the back of conceding two goals against inferior opposition."
Gary Neville agreed that Arsenal "had the handbrake on" against Manchester City. "He leaves out Eze and Martinelli and puts Trossard in, and Merino," he said. "I guarantee you, that dressing room straight away is thinking, 'You've done it again; you did this at Anfield'.
"He could have been more attacking at Anfield and he wasn't. And certainly, he could have been more attacking against Man City. He's going to regret this if he doesn't start to take the handbrake off."
"For sure, if you look at the players that we have, starting from the keeper, very attacking goalkeeper, the most attacking goalkeeper in the league by far," Arteta bizarrely claimed on Tuesday.
"The center backs, the most attacking one, in one phase, the most attacking one. The two full-backs, you look at every stat, that's it. We mainly play with a player on the right-hand side attacking midfield, he played as a nine last year.
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"So how attacking that is, more than a nine playing in midfield, I haven't seen it in the league. So I think we have a lot of attacking, different qualities of attacking players, some of them more talented in some areas than others in relation to the game that we play.
"I think when you look at the winning record on this club, the goals that we scored, the clean sheet that we had, the way we played against Manchester City, in the territory we played against Man City. I cannot waste that opportunity.
"And if the intention of those comments, which ones are the good ones, positive, to be better for us, not to be so good for us, it depends where the comment is coming from. That's when I can analyze it."
"He was talking about Noni Madueke playing as a center forward last season," Carragher said, referencing those comments from Arteta in the press conference.
"He was trying to argue against [the defensive tag] but it wasn't making much sense. I can understand him defending himself and not listening to the pundits.
"But I hope he's not doubling down on what he said there to his coaching staff and his players. What he was saying, I'm not sure stacked up. The team is there in front of you."
Liverpool.com says: Arsenal has a very good roster of players to choose from but it has always been defense and set-piece first in its approach. Unless that changes, it will struggle to get over the line in the title race, where the team that scores the most tends to collect the most points.
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