Jamie Carragher admits he was impressed with Arsenal’s ruthless second half performance against Newcastle, but believes the Gunners lack the quality required to qualify for the Champions League.
Arsenal romped to the most emphatic win of Arteta’s tenure on Sunday, tearing Steve Bruce’s side to pieces after the break having endured a frustrating opening period.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang broke the deadlock nine minutes after the re-start with a towering header, before Nicolas Pepe, Mesut Ozil and Alexandre Lacazette got in on the act.
The Gunners are still a distant seven points adrift of fourth placed Chelsea and although fifth place could yet offer a route into Europe’s premier club competition following Manchester City’s ban, but Carragher still believes Arteta’s side will fall short.
‘It was a great result for them against Newcastle and a brilliant second half performance, but I thought the first half was really poor.
‘I just think don’t think actually Arsenal are good enough, even though yes they closed the points gap.
‘It was nice for them to get a few goals in the game, Pepe scored, Saka was good at left-back and did really well as well.
‘There’s been a lot of positivity around Mikel Arteta coming in but it hasn’t actually changed the results that much. In fact they’ve actually got worse in some ways.
‘It was a big win in many ways for them but I don’t think Arsenal are good enough to get in the Champions League.’
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