'It's where Arsenal are going!' - Jamie Carragher defends claim Mikel Arteta is more like Jose Mourinho than Pep Guardiola

Arteta started as an assistant coach under Pep Guardiola at Manchester City and spent three years at Etihad Stadium before taking up his first senior managerial assignment at Arsenal in 2019. Over the years, the Spaniard has followed many of Guardiola's core tactical principles at the north London club and has transformed them into serious title contenders.

However, Liverpool legend and pundit Jamie Carragher recently claimed that Arteta's style of play is more similar to Jose Mourinho's conservative approach than Pep Guardiola's free-flowing football. The statement sparked a debate in the football world and the former England star reiterated his words on Monday while defending his claim.

Speaking on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football, Carragher said: "When I talk about where this team is moving to, I don't just pluck a statement out to try and create headlines - and it's not a criticism, it's an analysis that this team is going from intricate players to strong, powerful players. Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho are the two most dominant and successful managers of the last 15, 20 years, but they're at both ends of the spectrum in terms of style of football. You look at the players brought in here. And it is moving towards Jose Mourinho. Now, again, it's not a criticism of Arsenal or Mikel Arteta, it's analysis. Because this is a guy who has won the Premier League three times. Arsenal haven’t won the Premier League for 20 years."

He added: "If you think of Jose Mourinho as a manager, if he took over my club, what would I think I was getting? My first thing would be thinking, my teams will be strong defensively. No doubt about that. Arsenal are strong defensively. Height and strength and power in my team. We've just highlighted that about the size and the power of this Arsenal team. That's what you get from Mourinho. That's what you get from Arsenal right now. Set piece reliance - at times - you think how powerful Drogba and John Terry were. That's exactly the same with Arsenal. You rely on set pieces, especially this side. We just highlighted - at times, not all the time - Arsenal and the goalkeeper going direct. How often did we see Petr Cech go direct to Drogba, knock it down to Frank Lampard? The one thing that we should also say that Arsenal are not like Jose Mourinho, is winning trophies."

Carragher continued: "Now, if Jose Mourinho is watching tonight, and he'll see that, he will say, ‘but I win trophies’. At the moment, Arsenal haven’t won a trophy. They have been fantastic, the football they play is superb and how they are going about it, but anyone who thinks I just plucked this Jose Mourinho thing out to sort of create a negativity around Arsenal, it's analysing exactly where Arsenal are going.

"And if people don't agree with that, I don't think you're actually watching what's going on with Arsenal right now. I think Mikel Arteta feels he doesn't have the attacking quality that Manchester City have, so he's going another way to try and win the league, which is being strong defensively and a more powerful team."

After a disappointing loss to Newcastle United last weekend, the Gunners will be back in action on Wednesday night as they face Italian champions Inter in a Champions League clash.