Paul Merson has firmly stated that Arsenal are the overwhelming favourites to win the Premier league after their incredible performance away to Brighton and Hove Albion on New Year’s eve.
Mikel Arteta’s men beat the Seagulls at the AMEX Stadium to extend their lead at the top of the table to seven points, with a game against defending champions Manchester City in hand.
This means they can afford to lose to Pep Guardiola’s men and still have enough points to power them to a first league title since the 2003/04 season, when they went all the way without a single loss.
Goals from Bukayo Saka, Martin Ødegaard, Eddie Nketiah and Gabriel Martinelli helped them to stave off a late challenge from. Brighton, who got two goals in the game through Kaoru Mitoma and Evan Ferguson.
The Gunners have got the whole league buzzing and Merson, who spent a large part of his playing career at the club, is ecstatic about their performance.
Commentating on the win, he stated that Arsenal’s seven point lead at the top of the Premier League means that Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur are effectively ruled out of the running. He, however, chose to include defending champions Manchester City in the title race, while stating that one of the Gunners and the Citizens will come out as eventual winners by May 2023.
“It’s in their hands,” Merson said on Sky Sports. “There are teams – big teams – that can’t win the Premier League now.
“You’re looking at Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs, Man United. For me it’s Arsenal or Man City unless one of the other teams go on the most extraordinary run in Premier League history.
“I don’t see anyone stopping Arsenal right now. They are playing very well, it’s not been a fluke. They went to Old Trafford and got beat, and I didn’t think they deserved to. There’s ways of losing matches and they bounced back.
“The other night, they went 1-0 down to West Ham and they came back and brushed them aside. They are right in it, no question. This is not a fluke, they are where they are because they are a very good football team.
“There’s 26 games left, they’ve got to do it for another 22 probably. They’ve given themselves a little gap where they can afford to lose a few games. Man City are not going to win every game.
“Arsenal are right in this, I couldn’t talk highly enough about them. But this is the Premier League, it changes so quickly.
“Those three fixtures: Newcastle, Tottenham, Man United. If they beat Newcastle, you expect them to get a result at Tottenham, if they get a result at Tottenham I’d expect them to beat United.
“If they don’t Newcastle, you don’t expect them to beat Tottenham, they don’t beat Tottenham then you don’t expect them to beat United. It’s a domino effect. At the moment, they’re doing everything right.”
