City have had the drop-off this season and I think the worry for Arsenal is and I take it back to when I played for Liverpool in that under Mikel Arteta, I think he’s been here five years and every year you get better and you get to that point and we get there under [Gerard] Houllier, we got there under [Rafael] Benitez, where you just don’t make that final step, we dropped off massively.
‘I think sometimes, it’s about timing and I think if the Arsenal of last season, if that is playing this season, this is a real sort of fight between Liverpool and Arsenal to the wire.
‘I think we have actually, the second half of last season I think was the best, I thought Arsenal were brilliant, as good as anyone in Europe and I was watching them every week thinking this is a proper team.
‘What we do know is that no-one saw us as a title contender when we started at the beginning of the season – and I think no-one in the world of football would have expected City not to be so close to the one that leads the league, if they are not the one that leads the league.
Man City’s drop-off under Pep Guardiola has been staggering but Carragher still expects the Etihad club to be Liverpool’s biggest rivals for the title next season ahead of the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea.
