Carragher Eats Humble Pie Over Gyokeres as Arsenal's £64m Swede Silences the Doubters

There's nothing quite like a brace against Spurs to make a critic reconsider their position, and that's precisely what's happened with Jamie Carragher and Viktor Gyokeres.

The Liverpool legend has had a significant change of heart regarding Arsenal's Swedish striker, whom the club signed from Sporting Lisbon last summer for approximately £64m—beating Manchester United to the punch ahead of Benjamin Sesko.

Back in December, Carragher was distinctly unimpressed. He suggested that Gyokeres had no business leading the line when Arsenal possessed superior options, openly questioning whether Gabriel Jesus or Kai Havertz might be better suited to the central striker role. The former defender even drew unflattering comparisons, noting that Manchester City had Erling Haaland to fall back on.

"I think maybe the only negative of the night for Arsenal is that Gyokeres shouldn't be starting for Arsenal when they've got players like this," Carragher had declared at the time.

Those words now seem rather premature. After Gyokeres took his season tally to 15 goals with a stunning double against Spurs at the weekend, Carragher has performed a considerable U-turn.

Speaking to Sky Sports, the pundit acknowledged his misjudgement whilst offering genuine praise for what he sees in the 28-year-old. "I don't think he's a world-class striker or an amazing striker for Arsenal for the next five or years," Carragher admitted, "but I absolutely love his mentality."

It's that unwavering self-belief that has won Carragher over. Gyokeres possesses the kind of ruthless streak—"Alan Shearer-like," as Carragher put it—that separates the merely talented from the truly effective. He receives the ball and finishes. Simple as that.

The Swedish international's performance against Spurs represented perhaps his finest showing in an Arsenal shirt, and Carragher was quick to credit Mikel Arteta for his faith. Despite Carragher's earlier conviction that Gyokeres was buried in the pecking order, the manager kept faith week after week.

"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," Carragher reflected.

It's a timely reminder that strikers of Gyokeres' ilk—those who came to English football with 97 goals in 102 games for Sporting Lisbon—don't always settle overnight. But when they do, they tend to deliver precisely when it matters most.