Jamie Carragher has doubled down on suggestions Arsenal are moving towards a Jose Mourinho-type side, due to lack of faith in his attacking players.

The legend drew the ire of Gunners supporters last month after claiming their physical style more closely resembled Mourinho’s than . Arteta responded by claiming he had no issue with the comparison, and Carragher has gone into further detail to clarify his viewpoint.

During a segment on Sky Sports’ Monday Night , Carragher started by analysing Arteta’s major signings in each summer window. And from that, he deduced that the boss had veered towards building a more robust side to finally overhaul City.

Carragher said: “When I talk about where this team is moving to, I don't just pluck a statement out to try and create headlines - and it's not a criticism, it's an analysis that this team is going from intricate players to strong, powerful players.

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“ and are the two most dominant and successful managers of the last 15, 20 years, but they're at both ends of the spectrum in terms of style of football.

“You look at the players brought in here. And it is moving towards Jose Mourinho.

“Now, again, it's not a criticism of Arsenal or , it's analysis. Because this is a guy who has won the three times. Arsenal haven’t won the Premier League for 20 years.”

Carragher then listed the characteristics of a Mourinho team, and said Arsenal's current crop have all of the same hallmarks - but crucially without the trophies to show for it. He continued: ”If you think of Jose Mourinho as a manager, if he took over my club, what would I think I was getting?

“My first thing would be thinking, my teams will be strong defensively. No doubt about that. Arsenal are strong defensively.

“Height and strength and power in my team. We've just highlighted that about the size and the power of this Arsenal team. That's what you get from Mourinho. That's what you get from Arsenal right now.

“Set piece reliance - at times - you think how powerful Drogba and were. That's exactly the same with Arsenal. You rely on set pieces, especially this side.

“We just highlighted - at times, not all the time - Arsenal and the goalkeeper going direct. How often did we see Petr Cech go direct to Drogba, knock it down to ?

“The one thing that we should also say that Arsenal are not like Jose Mourinho, is winning trophies.”

Carragher added: “Now, if Jose Mourinho is watching tonight, and he'll see that, he will say, ‘but I win trophies’. At the moment, Arsenal haven’t won a trophy.

"They have been fantastic, the football they play is superb and how they are going about it, but anyone who thinks I just plucked this Jose Mourinho thing out to sort of create a negativity around Arsenal, it's analysing exactly where Arsenal are going.

“And if people don't agree with that, I don't think you're actually watching what's going on with Arsenal right now. I think Mikel Arteta feels he doesn't have the attacking quality that Manchester City have, so he's going another way to try and win the league, which is being strong defensively and a more powerful team.”

When asked for his feelings on the initial links, Arteta revealed his admiration for the Portuguese boss. “I’ve known him since I was 15 years old. He coached me. He was in .

“Yeah, he’s won 26 titles. So he’s someone to really admire, the way he’s done it, the way he’s changed the culture in clubs, the way he’s done it in different countries. But I don’t like comparing myself to anybody.”

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