Jamie Carragher highlights key Mikel Arteta call after Tottenham win

Football pundit Jamie Carragher praised Mikel Arteta for sticking with Arsenal striker Viktor Gyokeres after the Swedish international scored two goals against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.

Gyokeres was a big money signing from Sporting in the summer of 2025, and it is fair to say that the player did not exactly hit the ground running when he first joined. There were many inconsistent performances from the striker and there was a lack of output and involvement in many of the games that he played.

Even now, there are some games where Gyokeres is nowhere to be seen and that is one aspect of his game that he needs to improve if he wants to be successful for the long term at Arsenal. However, the game against Tottenham was much, much better.

Carragher, instead of just praising Gyokeres, also gave a shout-out to Arteta for sticking with him over the course of his bad form.

Jamie Carragher highlights key Mikel Arteta call after Tottenham win

He said: “The thing I like about Viktor Gyökeres is his mentality. I don’t think he’s a world-class striker or an amazing striker for Arsenal for the next five years. But I absolutely love his mentality. There’s no lack of confidence with him, he just gets the ball and bangs it in. It’s Alan Shearer-like, that sort of mentality.

“He could be vital and what I would say is here, is credit the manager. I felt they had to come away from Gyökeres, and I thought at some stage it might cost them. But the manager has stuck by him week after week, and the strength he showed in the game against Tottenham, it was very Alan Shearer-like.”

There are a lot of good things that Carragher said about Gyokeres. He compares him to Alan Shearer in the sense that he only needs some sort of space and one good look at the ball to score. He does not really need to be involved as much as many other strikers do, and that is a very good quality if the ball is going in.

There is no lack of confidence in that sense, because when you look at the goal that he scored against Tottenham, you can see that this guy does not seem underconfident at all.

The first goal, where he picks out the bottom right corner from outside the box with two touches, is fantastic. If a player is not at his confident best, he would not even think about taking that chance and scoring.

With Gyokeres, it was mostly instinctive, and that is a very good thing, especially for someone who does not really help in the build-up play that much. Gyokeres has not been the best signing for Arsenal this season, however, it is a good thing for Mikel Arteta to be sticking with him in these big games despite his poor run of form.

As everyone can see, it definitely paid off. Hopefully, this is the start of a good run of form for the Swedish striker, who really does show his talent in many games, but just needs to be more consistent for Arsenal to be able to win more and more trophies as the season enters the business end.