Jamie Carragher stunned viewers by claiming that Mikel Arteta will not deploy new signing Viktor Gyokeres in Arsenal’s biggest fixtures this season.
The former Liverpool defender left his fellow pundit Gary Neville surprised, with the Manchester United legend firmly disagreeing with the assessment.
Gyokeres featured in Arsenal’s opening fixture of the campaign against Manchester United and remained on the pitch for an hour before being substituted. He found it difficult to influence the Gunners’ attacking play and failed to register a shot as the Gunners secured victory at Old Trafford.
Reflecting on the remarkable record Arteta’s team have established against their biggest rivals – Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham – Carragher suggested that Gyokeres might be overlooked for such encounters, with Arsenal undefeated in their previous 22 matches against those opponents.
The Champions League winner believes Gyokeres will have no difficulty finding the back of the net throughout the campaign but considers Kai Havertz too crucial to be dropped.
“If I’m being honest, I think they go back to Havertz in the biggest games, I think that will be the case,” said Carragher on Sky Sports. “I can see Gyokeres playing and scoring goals.”
Neville responded: “He can’t leave Gyokeres out of big games.” However, Carragher immediately reinforced his position.
“He can,” he said. “I think Havertz is too important a player for Mikel Arteta to be left out. I don’t see that happening at all.”
Neville suggested that both stars could be on the pitch at the same time. “Arsenal needed a centre forward and brought one in, I saw glimpses that made me think he’ll be a handful,” Neville commented.
‘[Gabriel] Martinelli looks like he’s struggling, maybe getting Gyokeres and Havertz in together is something he has to try.”
Following Arsenal’s victory over United, Arteta acknowledged there was still work to do to fully integrate Gyokeres into his team but was pleased with his start. “Well, he did a lot of things very good,” the Spaniard remarked.
“You can tell, especially in our high-pressing rhythm that we demand that, especially in the first hour. Again, he took too much time. It’s something that we have to work on him, especially there.
“And then, yeah, finalising situation, he didn’t have that many chances to do that because, as I said, on the previous action, before we had to play that last ball that the line was standing still with 40 metres behind, we then managed to put the ball through to exploit his quality.
“But overall, I mean, coming away to Manchester United, winning your first game with Arsenal, it’s a good start.”