Mikel Arteta 'sounding more like a fan than manager' says Jamie Carragher after 'emotional' interview | OneFootball

Gunners boss was furious with his players despite their second-half fightback to draw with champions Liverpool

Second-half goals from Gabriel Martinelli and Mikel Merino - who was later sent off - saw the Gunners fight back from a 2-0 deficit to claim a share of the spoils against their former title rivals in the Premier League on Sunday, with the champions having earlier looked to be cruising after efforts from Cody Gakpo and Luis Diaz.

It was a spirited way for Arsenal to respond to their heartbreaking Champions League semi-final exit against Paris Saint-Germain in midweek and a recent top-flight slump that coincided with their deep European run, but Arteta was once again left angry and despondent in a tense post-match interview on Merseyside.

Arteta admitted he was “really, really upset” and added: “We had a reaction but I hate reaction, I like action.”

And while Carragher accepts that the Arsenal boss has high standards, he believes he is acting more like a fan in interviews having also attracted headlines after a 2-1 second-leg defeat in Paris that sealed a 3-1 loss on aggregate by claiming that it was “very clear” his team had been the best in the Champions League this season and had been told as much by the PSG bench.

“He’s driving high standards but I think the thing that really stood out in the interview for me, I think Mikel Arteta in the last couple of weeks in terms of his press conferences is he’s saying things and getting emotional,” the Liverpool legend said on Sky Sports.

“At times he’s sounding like a little bit of a fan, not so much the manager.”

Carragher believes Arteta is convinced that Arsenal would have beaten Liverpool to the title this season, had they not had so many players sent off and suffered a number of injuries to key performers across the campaign.

“He was really strong on how many players they’ve had sent off this season,” he said.

“Six, he was putting his hands up, six. I think he’s convinced inside that they’ve been victims this season in some ways, they’ve had the six sendings off, the injuries that they’ve had.

“I think deep down, I think he thinks they could have won the league without this and that, the red cards are not their fault, it was the referees and the injuries.

“There’s no doubt they would be a lot closer if they hadn’t had players sent off, but that’s down to you the sendings off. They are down to you.

“They weren’t all sendings off of course, there was the one at Wolves [Myles Lewis-Skelly’s red card that was later overturned] that probably wasn’t, but that’s going to happen in a season.”