Sky Sports pundit and former Arsenal ace, Paul Merson, remains an acquired taste for many, due in no small part for his hot-takes on the game, which often seem a little extreme and reactionary.
Ahead of the Gunners visit to Villa Park and a fixture against Aston Villa which they lost last season, Merson has been at it again.
It’s fair to say that his latest opinion won’t win him any more friends at the Emirates Stadium either.
“This is a massive game. Arsenal got done for the double by Aston Villa last season and that cost them the title,” he said in his Sportskeeda column, as part of his review into the match on Saturday evening.
“If Arsenal lose and Manchester City win this weekend, the Gunners could suffer in the title race. Mikel Arteta’s men also face Tottenham Hotspur and City in September, so it’s not an easy run-in from here.
“If things don’t go their way, Arsenal could even be out of the title race by October! I’m not even exaggerating, the next four fixtures starting with Villa on Saturday are all tough for them.
“If you lose two of them, it’s over. I’m going to go for an Arsenal win but I do think Villa can score.”
Whilst the relentless nature of the way in which Man City go after teams and hoover up trophies is becoming the norm, and a handful of losses could well prove prohibitive to Arsenal, to be dismissing their chances of a first title win in over 20 years at this early stage is downright ridiculous.
It doesn’t take into account how strong the Gunners themselves could be over the campaign, and whether City – or anyone else for that matter – has a serious wobble at some point.
Merson might well look back and wish he’d never uttered the words.
Actually in thiecase he is completely correct.
The Arsenal transfer window hasnbeen a diagrace . Tje owners are a disgrace with zero ambition. They behave had record revenue of 467m , but still no money to spend this summer, sell.before you buy.
Al beciase they ate using Arsenal for reverse levaraging. This summer Kroekne announced investment in Denver real estate of 260m.
Our spare after salaries etc wouldhsce Bern around 200 ton230m.
This is the status quo for KSE, restore top 4 then take money out of the club. They jsve done it since they Jace been inclined with Arsenal.
20 years without PL
Never won CL
5 years without domestic trophy
No ambition at all.
Our squad is an unbalanced mess.
We have no striker
No RW comp.for Saka
No AM.comp.for Odegaard
Today it looks like Merinomcoming in..at least LCM will have a player, but no comp either.
Rice is not an 8. Fabio is not RW or strong enough for AM.
Arteta has consistently failed to buy attacking players and it has cost us in every gull year he jas been here.
In his first full season he froze out Ozil, no replacement as was eventually saved by ESR, but ruined both Auba and Laca with lack of service.
Then he bought Ben White instead of Maddison
Ben White failed at.CB and cost us top 4
Them he bought Fabip instead of Maddision or other top player. We failed again with Jesus
Then it was Haveetz instead of LCM or strimer which are both positions we still need so Havertz signing was a failure as well.
For Havertz we should have gotten Milinkovic Savix and Kudus for same money and would have easily win the PL.
This.summer it’s worst because the Kronekes not even backing Arteta after his constant failure in transfer market.
KSE put and if no attacking players of note bright nin Arteta can leave as well