In his latest column Sky SportsPaul Merson says Michael Arteta deserves credit for his work at Arsenal and compares his former team’s challenge to dethrone Man City to a heavyweight boxing challenger beating Mike Tyson for a world title!
‘How will Arsenal recover if they don’t win the league?’
Fair play to Arsenal, you have to win games and they have gone to Spurs and won.
The highlight of this win is for the fans. It was such an important game for Arsenal supporters and the players got the job done.
What worries me, and I see Arsenal winning their next three games, is what happens if they do that but still don’t win the league? I don’t know how that will affect this Arsenal squad for next season.
Last year, he came into this season, and everyone said he was blown away. He had something to prove and could go again.
Even if they win the next three games and don’t win the league, they might start thinking what else can they do?
‘The Gunners are still inexperienced’
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Highlights of the Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal.
It was very nervous because of the goalkeeper. This is a bad mistake and it only causes drama.
Tottenham fans are relieved because they think they can get back into the game with another 10 minutes to go, but the only reason they’re back in it is the goalkeeper, it’s as simple as that.
Whatever you have to do in the run-in, you have to survive every minute of the game.
Something like that could have sent Arsenal all pear-shaped.
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Ben White appeared to fiddle with Guglielmo Vicario’s gloves moments before Pierre-Emile Hajbjerg headed into his own net during the north London derby.
Arsenal’s message is to do the simple things well and the goalkeeper sends the ball 60 yards down the pitch.
Even if you’re 3-0 up doesn’t mean you can take liberties with the other team because football changes like that, it changes quickly.
Arsenal should learn there. He was traveling but in the end, he was hanging on for dear life. That’s inexperience.
‘Credit goes to Arteta for what he did’
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Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta reflects on his side’s 3-2 win over Tottenham and how much the north London derby win meant to him and the supporters.
Mikel Arteta now has 100 Premier League wins in 169 games. He is a lucky fifth for that number of wins, behind some of the Premier League’s star names.
Respect (for Arteta’s record). They stuck with him and he got a chance. Arsenal were patient with him initially but he should be winning football matches.
It is an incredible record. He is just seven games behind Sir Alex Ferguson and 10 behind Jurgen Klopp, who we would classify as a legend.
Fair play to them, it’s phenomenal.
‘How can you beat Mike Tyson?!’
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Speaking on his podcast, Gary Neville believes Arsenal will win the rest of the season despite a difficult fixture away to Old Trafford.
It’s all about time.
If you’re a heavyweight boxing challenger and Mike Tyson is the champion, you’re not winning a world title.
It’s a bit like that for Arsenal. They are unlucky but they have to accept that they could be the second best team at the moment.
If not for City they would probably win the league. It’s just about time.
Michael Johnson About how many people have won the 400m race? There is no one. That’s how it works.
‘Strike Gunners can improve with electric pace’
Kai Havertz celebrates after Arsenal take a 3-0 lead at Tottenham
Another problem for Arsenal is how will they improve next season?
It’s like Tottenham a few years ago. He had an incredible starting line-up but we all said he needed to improve.
He had Harry Kane. If they wanted to sign a striker for £60m they wouldn’t have come to sit on the bench.
I like Kai Howertz. He is a top drawer player, but I feel Arsenal need a real electric pacer who can turn it on.
Seeing Holland, he came to the wilderness and the defense was unbelievable.
Arsenal haven’t really got it and they lost against Aston Villa because they haven’t got it.
‘We don’t give Man City enough credit’
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Roy Keane says the Premier League title is Man City’s after beating Nottingham Forest, but Paul Merson says Man City don’t get enough credit for performing well under pressure.
I can’t see Man City going winless in any of their remaining games.
Wolves have a couple of players back but they are struggling with injuries and are still not at full strength.
On his day Fulham could cause problems. It could be a game. They are a team that will hurt City. They have a good football team and players like Willian and Rodrigo Muniz. If you give them forest chances, Fulham will cause you problems.
People say don’t give up, but Man City are so good. They are proven.
They have done this many times before and I think they will be a good team if they are to win a football match.
They get together and they win football matches.
Sometimes you watch them early in the season, and it’s a little boring. They go up 1-0 and pass the ball forever. At this point in the season, it’s different. Against Luton, he scored the first goal and then went on to score seven or eight tries.
They are very good and we don’t give them enough credit for that. He is playing under intense pressure and he continues to perform week in, week out.
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