Jamie Carragher accused of playing games by Roy Keane as Liverpool legend piles pressure on Arsenal with Premier League favourites tag

Carragher has never been shy when it comes to offering an opinion and has stated that he considers Arsenal to be front of the queue when it comes to a title coronation. Arteta’s troops have moved to the top of the table, opening up a three-point lead on the chasing pack and pulling four clear of defending champions Liverpool.

The Gunners have also been faring admirably in Europe, picking up maximum points from three Champions League fixtures. Carragher is tipping them to be serious contenders in that competition as well, with major honours being chased down on domestic and continental fronts.

Ex-Lionesses star Jill Scott told the Stick to Football podcast after hearing Carragher talk up Arsenal again while appearing on CBS Sports’ coverage of elite European competition: “Jamie said last night that Arsenal are favourites for the Champions League, well he put them as favourites.”

Keane chipped back with: “Jamie plays games like that, doesn't he? He puts them favourites to put the pressure off Liverpool, a little bit, there's a little bit of that. But we all sit here and say, who's going to win the league and we're all going to say Arsenal now and that's putting pressure on them.”

Scott responded by saying: “I'm still sticking with Chelsea.” That statement drew a puzzled response from Keane, who said: “Jill I'm serious now, do you drink alcohol in the morning? How do you think Chelsea can win the league, they gave up about 10 chances against Nottingham Forest by playing out from the back. You think they're better than Arsenal?” Scott retorted with: “You change your mind all the time.”

Keane was not having that and reminded his fellow panelists of his pre-season prediction: “When did I change my mind, who did I say at the start of the season for the title? I said Arsenal.”

Paul Scholes said when offering his assessment of Arsenal so far: “I don't think we've seen one great team this year. Arsenal are very good team but I've not seen one performance where I've thought, they're going to win the league this year, other than maybe Newcastle away.”

Another United great with multiple Premier League titles to his name, Gary Neville, added when suggesting that Arsenal should be expecting to pull clear at the summit: “They've played United away, Man City, Liverpool away. They've played nearly everybody already and they're where they are. It is wrong to say this because it is ridiculous and we've all been in title races. If they don't win it from here... we've all predicted Arsenal to win the league right, we know it can go wrong.

“If they don't win it from where the other teams are and the confident position they're in now... a lot can change but they're in a good place. It feels like the Newcastle game turned the corner.

“It's not a putting pressure on them statement, they just must be thinking, ‘this is us, this year, we've got to win it’. When you can bring in [Myles] Lewis-Skelly for [Riccardo] Calafiori and Ben White, [Cristhian] Mosquera coming in with no drop off, it's looking scary.”

Keane ended the debate by saying: “We've got to be careful. We've got a responsibility saying stuff, two or three weeks ago, we see what happened to Liverpool. If Arsenal got a few injuries, things could change very quickly.”

Arsenal are on a six-match winning run across all competitions, with their only defeat this season coming away at Liverpool in August. They will be back in action on Sunday when taking in a testing derby date with London neighbours Crystal Palace.