Carragher Left Stunned by Arteta's Gyokeres Loyalty as Campbell Demands Consistency

Jamie Carragher has admitted his astonishment that Mikel Arteta resisted the temptation to drop Viktor Gyokeres, even as the Arsenal boss's faith in the Swedish striker finally bore fruit at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday.

Gyokeres bagged a brace in the Gunners' commanding 4-1 victory over Spurs, a result that restored Arsenal's Premier League summit to a comfortable five-point advantage over second-placed Manchester City—though Pep Guardiola's side possess a game in hand.

The £64m summer signing from Sporting CP had hardly set the world alight since arriving at the Emirates, a far cry from his prolific 97 goals in 103 matches for the Portuguese outfit. Yet on the North London stage, Gyokeres delivered what Carragher reckons was his most complete Arsenal performance to date, and he's now rattling in six goals across his last eight outings.

The Liverpool legend told Sky Sports his admiration for the Swede's unflinching self-belief proved the decisive factor in overlooking his earlier struggles. "The thing I like about Viktor Gyokeres is his mentality," Carragher explained. "I don't think he's a world-class striker or an amazing striker for Arsenal for the next five or 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."

Carragher went on to credit Arteta's steadiness through the rough patches. "I felt they had to come away from Gyokeres and I thought at some stage it might cost them," he said. "But the manager has stuck by him week after week and the strength he showed in this game, it was very Alan Shearer-like. We were looking at the strikers Arsenal had and I felt he was quite far down the pecking order and a few times I was quite surprised that Gyokeres was still in the team. But fair play to the manager because he's kept him in and he's repaid him in one of Arsenal's biggest games of the season."

Sol Campbell, meanwhile, was characteristically unsparing in his assessment. The Arsenal icon made plain that Gyokeres' brace represented a long-overdue contribution when the stakes were highest. "A 4-1 win away from home, keep going, keep rocking and we're going to get there," Campbell said. "We're going to do it this year. Eze was man of the match but Gyokeres came close, it's about time he turned up and I think those two goals are going to do him the world of good."

With the striker finally clicking at precisely the right moment, Arsenal's title credentials look decidedly robust heading into the business end of the campaign.