Jamie Carragher pinned the wrong narrative on Arsenal and Pep Guardiola just proved it

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Jamie Carragher made a comment about Arsenal at the beginning of the season that he now needs to divert to Manchester City.

Carragher has changed his mind about Arsenal already this season, and might be prepared to eat his words again.

The pundit has issued strong feedback about Mikel Arteta’s side since the 2025/26 campaign kicked off, with some comments ageing better than others.

Back in August, Carragher made a point about Arsenal’s reliance on set-pieces, but it’s becoming clear that, on the topic of overreliance, he pointed the finger at the wrong club.

Jamie Carragher said Arsenal are reliant on set-pieces, but Manchester City are the team with a reliance issue

After Arsenal’s defeat to Liverpool, Carragher claimed that ‘nothing had changed’ about the Gunners, taking aim at their lack of chance creation by saying that Arteta’s side are ‘heavily reliant on set-pieces’.

The narrative is tired, as there’s a difference between Arsenal being good at set-play and relying solely on dead-ball scenarios to score.

Arsenal score a lot from set-pieces, but that’s not what they set out to do, as the numbers support, being the Premier League side with the most touches in the opposition box so far this season. 

Given that Carragher has been pessimistic about Arsenal in the past, the pundit’s critique was expected; however, fans are now looking at the Liverpool icon to issue similar feedback to Manchester City.

If the topic of reliance in the Premier League has been raised about Arsenal over set-play, it must now be issued to Man City regarding Erling Haaland. 

Even Pep Guardiola has spoken about how frequently City are looking at Haaland to make the difference, commenting on the matter after the Cityzens’ win over Bournemouth. 

“Without him, it would be tough to be honest,” Guardiola said in his post-match press conference.

The Man City boss went on to compare his striker to Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, stating that his ‘influence is so big’ at the club right now.

How reliant are Manchester City on Erling Haaland? 

If one team in the Premier League have an overreliance problem, it’s Manchester City.

Haaland is responsible for 65% of City’s league goals so far, scoring 13 of the 20 goals Guardiola’s side have recorded. 

The reliance on Haaland is there for all to see, as the next highest scorers in the league for City are five players tied on just one goal.

Guardiola recognises that things need to change, as it’s not sustainable to rely on one player, even if it is Haaland.

Looking back, it’s staggering that Arsenal were the team pinned with the overreliance narrative earlier in the campaign, as the Gunners are proving that they’re far from that.