“Put Martinelli on the bench and play this player on the left” – Mikel Arteta has been seriously warned to stop using Martinelli and play a £47m player on the wing for Arsenal – not Trossard and Smith Rowe

Jamie Carragher says Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli must be as effective as Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane for Liverpool if they are to win the Premier League title this season, as Gary Neville claimed Arsenal’s two strikers must “combine often”.

Arsenal will return to the top of the Premier League if they beat West Ham on Thursday after being replaced at the top by Liverpool on Boxing Day.

Mikel Arteta’s team are many people’s favorites to go all the way this season given Manchester City’s relative difficulties this season, with Gary Neville tipping the Gunners for the title at the start of the season.

The Sky Sports expert still believes in north London, but has claimed that Arsenal’s front trio of Gabriel Jesus, Martinelli and Saka will cost them dearly if they don’t start linking up more effectively.

“There is an emerging front trio at Arsenal that could be excellent. But they don’t know how to combine,” he said on the Gary Neville Podcast. “It’s a real problem, the best threes involve their central strikers and wide players playing and bouncing off them.

“You’ve seen Salah, Firmino and Mané working together in the backline over the years. At Manchester United, when we were at our best, the front two linked up with each other.

“When the front players link up, the defenders find it difficult to deal with them. Martinelli, Jesus and Saka, I don’t see them linking up often.

“I don’t think Liverpool will do anything in January in that position because they have Diogo Jota and many other players up there. It’s more Arsenal.

“At the end of a number of their games this season, I’ve talked about whether Gabriel Jesus or Eddie Nketiah are No 1 and No 2 in attack in teams that have won the Premier League title. Or whether they are actually No. 2 and No. 3 strikers and they need No. 1.”

Carragher believes Saka and Martinelli will need to step up to make up for Jesus’ lack of goals, just as Salah and Mane did when they played with Roberto Firmino for Liverpool.

“When you have someone like Jesus at the top of the pitch, you have to have someone like Mohamed Salah, or your goalscorer on the edge. He [Jesus] is almost like Robert Firmino because his job was not to score goals,” he said.

“When you look at Arsenal’s front three and put it together, there really aren’t enough goals. They need someone like Mo Salah or Sadio Mane, so there is no one who would notice Firmino’s lack of goals.

“Believe it or not, in the title-winning season of 2020, Firmino didn’t score a league goal at Anfield. That’s incredible for a team that won the title. But Jesus, we look at it because there are not so many goals coming from wide areas.

“I look at Arsenal and parts of Liverpool and say to myself: can they win the league with weaknesses in certain areas? You look at Arsenal and you think, can you win a title with a lack of a goalscorer who scores every week or close to it?”