Arsenal: Carragher admits he was wrong about Gunners star ‘costing’ them PL title

Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has hit back at Arsenal star Viktor Gyokeres after suggesting he could “cost” his side the Premier League title.

Gyokeres joined Arsenal this summer from Sporting Lisbon for a fee of around £64 million after choosing him over Manchester United’s Benjamin Sesko.

The Swedish international scored 97 goals in 102 appearances for Sporting Lisbon, but was taking a significant step forward towards Arsenal and has been criticized at times for his performances this season.

Gyokeres has been ineffective in some big matches, but he moved to 15 goals for the 2025/26 campaign with his brace against Spurs this weekend.

Carragher has already advised Gyokeres to fall behind Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz in the pecking order at Arsenal this season.

“I’m a big fan of (Gabriel) Jesus. He hasn’t always been an amazing finisher but he’s a fantastic footballer. I think maybe the only negative of the night for Arsenal is that Gyokeres shouldn’t start for Arsenal when they have players like this (Jesus),” Carragher said in December.

READ: Arsenal win Premier League but remain bottlenecks, Spurs relegated, Pereira sacked – 10 predictions for run-in

He added: “He or Havertz as Arsenal’s central striker is a better player than Gyokeres. Gyokeres is really a player and I admire him for taking that penalty against Everton, he always looks very intense.

“But I think he just lacks that finesse and quality when you think about what they have on the bench. Don’t forget City have (Erling) Haaland so I think Arsenal need to improve what they have in Gyokeres and they have players who can improve Gyokeres in Jesus.”

However, Carragher has now admitted he was wrong about Gyokeres.

“What I like about Viktor Gyokeres is his mentality,” Carragher told Sky Sports.

MORE ARSENAL COVERAGE ON F365…
* Premier League winners and losers: Arsenal, Spurs, Haaland, Forest, Leeds, Chelsea and more
* Do Arsenal fans really want Spurs to collapse? The victory would be “hollow”
* Arsenal blast Barcelona with £92m ‘offer’ for ‘their most desired signing’

“I don’t think he’s going to be a world-class striker or an incredible striker for Arsenal for the next five years or so.

“But I love his mentality. He doesn’t lack confidence, he just gets the ball and hits it, it’s the Alan Shearer way, that kind of mentality.

“As Gary Neville said in his commentary, I think it’s the best we’ve seen Gyokeres play in an Arsenal shirt, it was an absolutely fantastic finish.

“He could be (vital) and what I would say here is credit to the manager. I felt they had to move on from Gyokeres and I thought at some point it could cost them.

“But the manager stuck by him week in week out and the strength he showed in that game was very much like Alan Shearer.

“We were looking at the Arsenal strikers and I felt he was quite far down the pecking order and on several occasions I was quite surprised that Gyokeres was still in the team.

“But fair play to the manager because he kept it and he paid it back in one of Arsenal’s biggest games of the season.”