Jamie Carragher has hailed Gabriel Jesus and William Saliba for transforming Arsenal into a team which can go "a lot closer" to winning the Premier League than "people give them credit for".
The Gunners are sitting pretty at the table's summit with a brilliant record of six wins from their opening seven games, including a comprehensive 3-0 victory over Brentford last time out. They lead defending champions Manchester City and local rivals Tottenham by one point ahead of the North London derby against the latter on Saturday.
Jesus has spearheaded the attack in his debut season at the Emirates, chipping in with four goals and three assists in seven league appearances following his £45million summer transfer from City. Saliba has been similarly impressive, establishing himself in Mikel Arteta's first-choice defence to help the Gunners record three clean sheets in the top flight.
Carragher picked out Jesus and his young French teammate as the two players who have made the difference for Arsenal so far this season. He also pointed out that the club's dazzling array of young talents are continuing to develop under the tutelage of their "brave" manager.
"If you actually watched Arsenal this season, you'd never seen them before. I mean, they do look like they could be title contenders," Carragher told talkSPORT. "I've always been a huge fan of Mikel Arteta, [I] really like how brave he's been - certainly last season - in blooding all these young players.
"Now, they're 12 months older but [with] the signing of Jesus and Saliba coming in at the back, [it] almost feels like it's completely changed the whole aspect of Arsenal right now. I think they could be a lot closer [to winning the league] than, you know, people give them credit for."
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Despite Carragher's glowing praise for Arsenal, Arteta has routinely played down his side's chances of being crowned champions in May. Most recently, the Spaniard did so after Saliba and Jesus were on the scoresheet against Brentford, with Fabio Vieira grabbing the other goal during the classy display at the Gtech Community Stadium.
"You can ask me every day," Arteta said when asked if the Gunners are title contenders. "Today, we are top of the league, I am so happy. Yesterday, I was annoyed because we lost it [3-1 at Manchester United ] and we used that today as we want to get back there and show that we want to be there and that's what we’re going to do. Push to be the best that we can be and that's the aim and then the table won't lie after 38 games."
