It feels like every week at the moment, there’s a new debate about Arsenal’s style of play.

After the narrow 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest, the champions were accused of being boring, with rival fans on social media labelling Mikel Arteta’s side as the “unwatchables”. Then they went to Bayern Munich, went toe to toe with them in a thrilling 2-2 draw, and some still weren’t satisfied. Arteta himself has dismissed the critics as “a very small minority”.

Jamie Carragher has now given his view, and while he agrees with the general notion that Arsenal still need more attacking firepower to win the Champions League, he thinks Arteta would be wise not to change too much.

Jamie Carragher points to Liverpool as a warning for Mikel Arteta

In his new column for The Telegraph, Carragher compared Arsenal’s situation with the one his old club faced after winning the title last year.

Rather than build on what had won them the league, Liverpool became preoccupied with what was needed to go further in Europe, after losing to PSG on penalties (we know the feeling) in the round of 16.

“Wherever Liverpool go from here under Andoni Iraola, the team have gone backward since then despite spending £700m, including substantial fees on the most highly rated attackers in Europe,” Carragher wrote. “That must serve as a warning to Arteta as he considers what direction to go and how quickly he feels it needs to be done.”

That doesn’t mean he thinks Arsenal are the finished article. He feels they’ll struggle to win the Champions League without “more stardust upfront”, and he suggested they benefited from a favourable route to last season’s final, past Bayer Leverkusen, Sporting and Atletico Madrid. Arsenal fans might argue that beating anyone over two legs at that stage is no small achievement, and that they came within a penalty shootout of lifting the trophy.

But Carragher is firmly on Arteta’s side, at least in this instance. The former Liverpool defender believes Arsenal could be at the start of a golden era, however divisive their style, and with little strong competition at home, especially if Manchester City are hit hard by their punishment, he thinks Arteta is “smart to keep the winning formula and leave the complaining to everyone else.”

If that winning method does keep on working, Arteta could do something no Arsenal manager has done since 1935: successfully defend the league title.