Carragher explains why Arsenal are the second best Champions League team

Joe Williams
Jamie Carragher on Arsenal
Jamie Carragher during his role as a TV pundit.

Jamie Carragher thinks Premier League rivals Manchester City are the only team better than Arsenal in the Champions League this season.

The Gunners are having a good season so far with Mikel Arteta guiding them to the top of the Premier League over the weekend after their 1-0 victory over Brentford saw them leapfrog Manchester City at the summit.

Arsenal are also having a good time in Europe with Arteta’s men securing top spot in their Champions League group with a game to spare after beating Lens 6-0 on Wednesday.

The Gunners have only lost three matches in all competitions this season, including a 3-1 loss to West Ham in the Carabao Cup, and Carragher thinks Arsenal are the second best side in the Champions League this campaign.

When asked about Arsenal’s chances of winning the Champions League, Carragher told CBS Sports: “I think they are contenders.

“They haven’t got that history that you can look back on in this competition of winning multiple-time European wins like Bayern Munich.

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“I wouldn’t say Bayern Munich are a better team than Arsenal but there’s something about when you see Bayern Munich in Europe you feel like they could do it because they’ve been there before.

“Arsenal haven’t got that aura but you’ve got to get it sometime.

“I think the competition right now, there’s only Manchester City who are better than Arsenal in this competition.”

Arsenal have been linked with a number of new strikers with Gabriel Jesus scoring just once in the Premier  League this season – but the Brazilian is not worried by the speculation.

“This happens you know, maybe it can be agents talking about a lot of things,” Jesus said. “I’m not the most experienced, but I think I have seen a lot of things in football.

“Sometimes it is like this, it happened when I was at City even with (Sergio) Aguero and me scoring. I was scoring a lot and people was linking everyone. So here, I don’t care about this.

“I know my qualities and I know what I can bring to the team. I can score and I can also help with other things, like opening spaces. But the only people who can see it are those who watch the game and understand.

“Those who don’t understand we will say that: ‘Oh he didn’t score today’. But maybe I run and open space for someone and, let’s be honest, I don’t miss a lot of chances.

“I think it is not about ‘he doesn’t know how to score’. Sometimes I have to be more in the box, that is the one thing I am working on.”