Jamie Carragher says Arsenal are worse than Liverpool and Chelsea in key area

Ex-Liverpool and England defender Jamie Carragher (Picture: CBS Sports)

Jamie Carragher says Arsenal are worse than Premier League rivals Liverpool and Chelsea at selling players.

The Gunners spent over £250m this summer bringing the likes of Viktor Gyokeres, Eberechi Eze and Martin Zubimendi to the Emirates Stadium.

Eight players were signed in total to bolster an Arsenal squad that has finished as runners-up in the Premier League for three seasons in a row.

A dozen players also left the north London club in the summer but less than £10m was raised in player sales.

Thomas Partey and Jorginho both left on free transfers at the end of their Arsenal contracts while Fabio Vieira, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Reiss Nelson all left on loan.

Arsenal’s record sale remains the £35m Liverpool paid for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in 2017.

Carragher believes Arsenal are inferior to Liverpool and Chelsea in terms of selling players and says the club’s healthy investment means Mikel Arteta ‘has’ to win a major trophy this season.

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta (Picture: Getty)

Arsenal have made a solid start to the Premier League campaign, sitting second after four games, and beat Athletic Bilbao in their Champions League opener on Tuesday night.

Discussing Arsenal after the 2-0 win in Bilbao, Carragher said on CBS Sports: ‘I think a couple of years ago we would say, “Arsenal still need to win something under Mikel Arteta”, now we’re fully at that stage.

‘But for me I don’t even think it’s the FA Cup or the Carabao Cup. That would be nice but when you look at Arsenal’s team and squad, it’s what you expect to see at Real Madrid or PSG.

‘Arsenal have to go really, really close this season.

‘In terms of Mikel Arteta you have to look at the spending. I know Liverpool have spent a lot more this summer, no doubt.

‘But in terms of a club Arsenal don’t sell well, they don’t sell any players. Liverpool and Chelsea do, they bring a lot of money in to give them the chance to spend big.

‘Arsenal don’t but in terms of the top of the club they’ve still backed Arteta to the hilt, continually spending money to create this squad. He has to pay them back now.’

Liverpool spent a British record £446m on new signings this summer but also brought in almost £200m on player sales.

The Premier League champions received big money for Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez, who joined Bayern Munich and Al Hilal respectively.

Chelsea, meanwhile, received almost £300m on summer sales, offloading the likes of Noni Madueke, Christopher Nkunku and Joao Felix.

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