Jamie Carragher has heaped praise on Viktor Gyokeres following his display in the north London derby, despite previously calling on Mikel Arteta to drop the Arsenal striker from his starting XI. The 27-year-old Gyokeres struggled during the opening months of his maiden Premier League season, managing just five league goals. This led some observers to wonder whether Arsenal had erred last summer when they recruited the Sporting Lisbon forward in their hunt for a new number nine.

The Gunners' striker has been in scintillating form since the new year began, however, and delivered his finest showing in Arsenal colours to date during the 4-1 thrashing of Tottenham, with Gyokeres netting twice. And Carragher, who stated in December that Gyokeres "shouldn't be starting" matches ahead of the returning Gabriel Jesus, offered the striker high praise following Sunday's emphatic victory.

"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.

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"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.

"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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