Jamie Carragher has claimed that Arsenal are worse than Liverpool and Chelsea at selling players. Mikel Arteta's side splashed out more than £250million this summer, bringing Kepa Arrizabalaga, Martin Zubimendi, Christian Norgaard, Noni Madueke, Cristhian Mosquera, Viktor Gyokeres and Eberechi Eze to the Emirates Stadium.
Piero Hincapie also signed on a season-long loan deal from Bayer Leverkusen on deadline day. Although Arsenal spent the third-most in the Premier League behind Liverpool and Chelsea, Arteta's men had the highest net spend, due to the fact the club make any high-profile sales.
Indeed, the Gunners made less than £10m in sales, with Nuno Tavares and Marquinhos among those to leave on permanent transfers. Arsenal's record sale is still the £35m Liverpool paid for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in 2017.
Discussing Arsenal after the 2-0 win against Athletic Club, Carragher believes that the Gunners are inferior to Liverpool and Chelsea in terms of offloading players and says that the investment pumped into the squad means that Arteta has got to win a major piece of silverware this season.
Carragher said on CBS Sports: "I think a couple of years ago we would say, 'Arsenal still need to win something under Mikel Arteta', now we’re fully at that stage.
"But for me I don't even think it’s the FA Cup or the Carabao Cup. That would be nice but when you look at Arsenal’s team and squad, it’s what you expect to see at Real Madrid or PSG.
"Arsenal have to go really, really close this season. In terms of Mikel Arteta you have to look at the spending. I know Liverpool have spent a lot more this summer, no doubt.
"But in terms of a club Arsenal don't sell well, they don’t sell any players. Liverpool and Chelsea do, they bring a lot of money in to give them the chance to spend big.
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"Arsenal don’t but in terms of the top of the club they#ve still backed Arteta to the hilt, continually spending money to create this squad. He has to pay them back now."
Arsenal ran out narrow winners in Bilbao on Tuesday as the Gunners got their Champions League campaign off to the perfect start. However, it wasn't straightforward for Arteta's side, who had to wait until the second half to find the breakthrough with substitutes Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard both scoring off the bench.
Speaking post-match, Arteta said: "What an amazing place to play football. I must say, one of the greatest atmospheres that I've been in. We knew that the first 20-25 minutes it was going to be really tough, especially the way they played, it was so intense; a lot of direct players, a lot of duels.
"I think after that we started to grow throughout the game, and in the second half we were much more fluent, dominant, and looked much more of a threat. And at the end, the finishers, they made the impact for us to win the game, and overall, I’m very happy."
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