Jamie Carragher hails Arsenal’s Invincibles as ‘the best team I EVER played against’, as he reveals Arsene Wenger’s side made him feel ‘smaller, weaker and not good enough’

Jamie Carragher has labelled Arsenal‘s Invincibles as the team that he feared the most as a player.

The Gunners won three league titles under Arsene Wenger in 1998, 2002 and 2004, with their final triumph coming in a season where they went unbeaten.

Carragher was trying to stop their dominance while playing for Liverpool, and the former Reds defender pointed out that he also went up against memorable Manchester United sides and Jose Mourinho‘s Chelsea. However, he believes the Arsenal team from 2002 to 2004 were a cut above and caused him nightmares.

Speaking to a member of that Arsenal side, Freddie Ljungberg, on Monday Night Football, Carragher admitted: ‘This team is the best team I ever played against, and the one team where I would say going into games affected me psychologically. 

‘I felt uncomfortable, I didn’t feel good enough, I didn’t feel physically strong, it made me feel smaller and weaker. Against United, you knew they were better than us or Chelsea had the edge on us but you still felt we’d give them a good game. We’ll take them as far as they can. 

Carragher believes the task of keeping Arsenal’s left side quiet during that period was a near impossible task

‘This, Freddie, and your team is what it did to me psychologically.’

Carragher finished his career at Anfield as a centre back, but played at right back during his early days at Liverpool.

Looking back, he thinks it was one of the toughest roles he could have been given when playing against Arsenal as they had multiple threats down that flank in Robert Pires, Ashley Cole and Thierry Henry.

He explained it took him years to figure out how to combat Wenger’s side due to how quickly they attacked down his side.

‘I actually think playing this Arsenal team as a right back, I’m not sure there was any more difficult positions to play in the world, certainly at that time,’ Carragher continued.

‘I played right back in that Liverpool team in the early 2000s and you’d get Pires coming inside, you’d get Thierry Henry spinning out to this side and you’d get Ashley Cole on the overlap. And the reason I’d say this team was the toughest to play against was because things happened so quickly. 

Carragher said he figured out years later that the best way to handle Thierry Henry (left) and Robert Pires (right) was by standing still rather than following them around the pitch

‘That’s the most difficult thing as a defender, you’ve got no time to react. I was an organiser, telling people where to go and organising the team. When you’re playing against a team who play at this pace there’s no time to speak. You can’t pass on information, things are happening so quickly. 

‘And I think this area of Pires, Cole, Thierry Henry was devastating. I have nightmares thinking about it. 

‘I actually think after a few years playing them, the best way of dealing with it was not to go inside with Pires, I’m the right back he’s the left winger or I’m going to stay here with Cole or where’s Thierry Henry going, centre back goes there (out wide) and then I’m inside. 

‘It was actually a case of, don’t move. Actually just stand still. I can’t cope with this, it’s actually “let’s hold our positions”.’