SaqPaul Merson claims Arsenal’s title hopes could be over as early as next week.
The Gunners travel to Tottenham on Sunday and then Manchester City next weekend, between two tough Champions League tests this season at Atalanta.
And the Arsenal great believes his former side’s title race will be over if they fail to pick up at least four points from those two games.
“Arsenal’s Premier League season will be decided by the next two games against Tottenham and Manchester City,” he told Sky Sports. “They need four points. It’s as simple as that.”
“If they get less then you start to worry because you’re playing catch-up against a machine like Manchester City. If they draw against Spurs and lose at Manchester City a week later they’ll probably be seven points behind and I think that’ll be it.”
“I know there are 30 or so games to go but I don’t see how they can make up the seven points. I was very optimistic last year that Arsenal would definitely win the north London derby but I’m not so sure this season – and it’s a game they can’t afford to lose in the title race.”
Arsenal will be without Declan Rice after his red card against Brighton, while new signing Mikel Merino is injured and has been joined on the sidelines by captain Martin Odegaard after a nasty ankle injury sustained while on international duty.
“I’m a little bit worried about Arsenal without Declan Rice, who is suspended, and Tottenham at home,” Merson added. “Last season, Arsenal dominated and then all of a sudden they conceded a goal and you could only see one result, and that was Tottenham coming back.
“I don’t think Tottenham have much to be ashamed of at the moment. They’ve been very unlucky. They could easily have ended up with nine points and been top of the league. Tottenham dominated Leicester and should have drawn Newcastle at worst. They ended up drawing and losing both games.”
“With experience you make sure you don’t get beaten at Newcastle and Leicester when it was 1-1, they didn’t look like they were going to score again and that would have been worrying. But that comes with experience and another year and another year. Look how long it took Manchester City to win the Champions League.”
“It’s the same in the Premier League, the manager would have said, you know what, we shouldn’t have lost to Newcastle. At that point you think if they don’t win this game they’ve dropped two points.
At the moment, there is not much to be gained with Spurs. They are not as bad as people think, simply because of the points they have taken. Their performances are not that bad.
Saq
