Jamie Carragher forced into Arsenal U-turn and makes Liverpool comparison

Jamie Carragher has been forced to admit for the first time that Arsenal are genuine contenders for the Champions League.

The Gunners demolished Atletico Madrid 4-0 on Tuesday, making it three wins from three games in Europe this season.

Mikel Arteta's side have now put to the sword Athletic Club, Olympiakos and Atletico without conceding a single goal. Gabriel Magalhaes nodded home Declan Rice's free-kick to open the scoring before Gabriel Martinelli whipped in a stunning second.

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Viktor Gyokeres then added two close-range strikes to end his barren spell in front of goal and seal another three points for Arsenal.

Arteta's men are joint-top of the Champions League table, level with holders Paris Saint-Germain and last year's finalists, Inter Milan.

Thoroughly impressed by what he saw from the Premier League leaders, Carragher heaped praise on Arsenal and labelled them one of the favourites.

"Right now, I think Arsenal and Bayern (Munich) are the two most impressive teams I've seen when you look at their performances domestically and what they're doing in the Champions League," the Liverpool legend explained on .

"I've said before on this show that I've never had Arsenal down as a Champions League club. I know that might sound obvious because they've never won it before but I've always thought there's something about them that doesn't connect, they've never really gone close.

"Thierry's [Arsenal] team was the best team I ever played against in the Premier League and even that team didn't come close enough to winning the Champions League. It wasn't that team that got to the Champions League final.

"I do look at this team now and see how strong they are defensively. My Liverpool team that won the Champions League [in 2005] were not a great team attacking-wise but we were strong defensively.

"That always gives you a chance, especially when you get to the knockout stages and the two-legged ties. If you're strong defensively you've always got a chance. So, yeah, I see Arsenal as one of the four or five teams that can win this competition."

Arteta was thrilled with the Gunners' four-goal showing which extended their run of wins in all competitions to six.

"I'm extremely happy and proud of the performance and the results against a really good side," the Arsenal boss said.

"I was very impressed when I analysed them and what I've seen today about them as well. So, I knew about the difficulty of it. It required a lot of aggression and a lot of patience as well, and the way they managed the context of the game and the way they can manipulate their behaviour was really impressive."