Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher said Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta would be livid with his players after a 2-2 draw against Crystal Palace at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday. The home team took the lead twice but could not hang on to their advantage.
Arsenal now need at least six points from their remaining four league fixtures to ensure a place in the next year’s Champions League.
Meanwhile, Jakub Kiwior scored early in the third minute to put the Gunners in front but Eberechi Eze equalized for the visitors in the 27th minute. Leandro Trossard then netted in the 42nd minute but Jean-Phillippe Mateta scored in the 83rd minute to help his team share the spoils.
“I think he’ll be furious tonight, Mikel Arteta,” Carragher said on Sky Sports. “They’ll be fine in terms of qualifying for the Champions League, but you want to put that to bed as early as you can. When you look at the fixtures, then you’ve got Bournemouth, which is not an easy game, at home. But that’s in between the two biggest games of the season. If you win tonight, you can almost write the Bournemouth game off and change the whole team – I don’t think he’s in a position to do that because of what comes next. Liverpool away.
“So, if you put a really weakened team out against Bournemouth, which I think he would have wanted to do to really go for this Champions League final, and you lose the game, and then you go to Anfield and there’s a good chance you’re going to lose at Liverpool off the back of playing PSG – Liverpool are at home with a free week. If they lose the next two games, the others are only a point or two behind you, and then you’ve got Newcastle.”
Carragher added: “That’s why I think he’ll be furious, and that’s why I think he made his team as strong as he did at Ipswich – if we put this to bed now and then we can concentrate on the two Paris Saint-Germain games and we’ll be fine. They’ll qualify for the Champions League next year, of course they will, but you just don’t want that sort of thing where you’re looking behind you, looking over your shoulder.”
Arsenal will take on PSG in the first-leg of the Champions League semifinals on Tuesday at the Emirates Stadium.
