Jamie Carragher has said he felt pity for the Arsenal centre-back pairing of Rob Holding and Gabriel Magalhaes, who were ripped apart by Manchester City duo Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne on Wednesday.
The Liverpool legend has also previously claimed that the Englishman in particular got bullied by the Sky Blues’ No.9 on the day.
As the Manchester City front two of Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne took turns to massacre Rob Holding and Gabriel Magalhaes for Arsenal, Jamie Carragher ended up feeling sorry for them.
Carragher felt sorry for Holding & Gabriel as Arsenal lost to Manchester City
Right from the off, it seemed like Haaland and De Bruyne were men on a mission, as they linked up for the opening goal in the seventh minute.
While the 22-year-old physically dominated Holding to set his partner-in-crime up, the Belgian breezed past Gabriel to open the scoring; and that was the theme throughout the clash.
Jamie Carragher said that that he felt a sense of pity for the makeshift Arsenal centre-back twosome of Rob Holding and Gabriel Magalhaes against Manchester City.
“But for me, in terms of Holding and Gabriel, I’ll throw it to you [the fan on the show] about Arsenal but as a centre-back watching that, I actually felt for them. I don’t think they got anywhere near enough protection”, he said on the Overlap YouTube channel.
HITC View: The gulf in class was on show at the Etihad Stadium
While Jamie Carragher is fair to pinpoint Rob Holding and Gabriel in this instance, the rest of the Arsenal players also looked like schoolboys in front of the Manchester City juggernaut.
Perhaps the biggest gap in quality and calibre was on show in midfield, as titans like Rodri, Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne dominated proceedings, while Thomas Partey, Granit Xhaka and Martin Odegaard were riddled with mistakes.
However, this would be a lesson for the Gunners and Mikel Arteta that they can learn from as they hope to eclipse their legendary title rivals.
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