Roy Keane accuses Jamie Carragher of ‘playing games’ with new Arsenal prediction

Jamie Carragher has claimed Arsenal are the favourites to win the Champions League this season, but Roy Keane believes his fellow pundit is ‘playing games’

Manchester United icon Roy Keane has accused fellow pundit Jamie Carragher of playing mind games with his recent Champions League prediction. The ex-Liverpool defender has tipped Arsenal as the favourites to lift the trophy this year, following Liverpool’s recent four-match winless streak.

Arne Slot’s team responded in style in the Champions League with a resounding 5-1 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt and now have the chance to halt their Premier League slump against Brentford this weekend. Meanwhile, Arsenal have regained pole position and breezed past Atletico Madrid in their midweek Champions League clash.

During an episode of The Overlap – Stick to Football, former England Lioness Jill Scott mentioned Carragher’s comments from his CBS coverage, where he declared Arsenal as the Champions League front-runners.

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“Jamie said last night that Arsenal are favourites for the Champions League, well he put them as favourites,” Scott remarked.

Keane was quick to respond to this, stating: “Jamie plays games like that, doesn’t he? He puts them favourites to take the pressure off Liverpool, a little bit, there’s a little bit of that.”

“But we all sit here and say, who’s going to win the league and we’re all going to say Arsenal now and that’s putting pressure on them.”

Scott, who previously backed Chelsea to clinch the title, remained steadfast in her prediction. She asserted: “I’m still sticking with Chelsea.”

“Jill I’m serious now, do you drink alcohol in the morning?” Keane cheekily retorted. “How do you think Chelsea can win the league, they gave up about 10 chances against Nottingham Forest by playing out from the back. You think they’re better than Arsenal?”.

“You change your mind all the time,” Scott fired back. However, Keane was quick to set the record straight, reminding her of his pre-season prediction: “When did I change my mind, who did I say at the start of the season for the title? I said Arsenal.”

Fellow United legend Gary Neville chimed in: “They’ve [Arsenal] played United away, Man City, Liverpool away. They’ve played nearly everybody already and they’re where they are. It is wrong to say this because it is ridiculous and we’ve all been in title races. If they don’t win it from here… we’ve all predicted Arsenal to win the league right, we know it can go wrong.

“If they don’t win it from where the other teams are and the confident position they’re in now… a lot can change but they’re in a good place. It feels like the Newcastle game turned the corner.

“It’s not a putting pressure on them statement, they just must be thinking, ‘this is us, this year, we’ve got to win it’. When you can bring in [Myles] Lewis-Skelly for [Riccardo] Calafiori and Ben White, [Cristhian] Mosquera coming in with no drop off, it’s looking scary.”

“We’ve got to be careful,” Keane warned. “We’ve got a responsibility saying stuff, two or three weeks ago, we see what happened to Liverpool. If Arsenal got a few injuries, things could change very quickly.”

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