Jamie Carragher changes his tune on Viktor Gyokeres after telling Arsenal to drop striker

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Jamie Carragher has lauded Viktor Gyokeres off the back of his performance in the north London derby despite previously urging Mikel Arteta to axe the Arsenal striker from his team.

Gyokeres, 27, endured a challenging start to his first ever Premier League campaign, scoring just five league goals. That prompted some to question whether Arsenal had made a mistake back in the summer when they decided to sign the Sporting Lisbon star in their search for a new No 9.

The Gunners frontman has been on fire since the turn of the year, though, and produced his best performance in an Arsenal shirt to date in the 4-1 dismantling of Tottenham , with Gyokeres scoring twice.

And Carragher, who said in December that Gyokeres "shouldn't be starting" games ahead of the fit-again Gabriel Jesus , gave the striker his flowers in the aftermath of Sunday's big win.

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"The thing I like about Viktor Gyokeres is his mentality," Carragher told Sky Sports .

"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.

"As Gary Neville said on commentary, I think that’s the best we’ve seen Gyokeres play in an Arsenal shirt, it was an absolutely fantastic finish.

"He could be [vital] and what I would say is here, is credit the manager. I felt they had to come away from Gyokeres and I thought at some stage it might cost them.

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"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."

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