Paul Merson is confident that Arsenal will beat Tottenham in the north London derby this weekend.
Both teams face off in another NLD as they both look to end this campaign in the European places.
Spurs won the reverse of this fixture, 2-0 with Son Heung-min and Harry Kane supplying the goals for them.
Both teams have suffered rough patches this season, but Spurs are closer to a European place than the Gunners.
They have enjoyed their front three of Kane, Son and Gareth Bale in fine form recently and that should give them the confidence to get the win at the weekend.
However, Merson says Arsenal is playing the better football and Spurs rely on Kane too much.
He rubbished Spurs’ record of having scored 100 goals in all competitions this season by claiming over 20 of them have been against small teams.
He writes in his Star Sports column: “Jose Mourinho says scoring over 100 goals this season is not bad for a “negative team” like Tottenham.
“But who’s he trying to kid? Look at the quality of the teams they’ve played. Seriously.
“They scored five against Marine. Four against Wycombe. And then eight against a bog-average Wolfsberger team in the Europa League.
“Don’t forget the seven they scored against mighty Maccabi Haifa in the qualifying round as well. That’s 24 of their goals already… Come on. Be honest. I think Arsenal are favourites against them this weekend. I really do.
“If both teams play to the best of their ability I think Arsenal win the game. I think their passing and movement is better.
“Spurs rely too much on Harry Kane and Heung-min Son, and lately Gareth Bale. But Arsenal are a different team to the one Spurs beat in December.”
For sure, we will dominate the game and especially the first and second thirds of the pitch. JM will defend in a low block and try to score with counter-attacks. If we take our scoring chances and defend well against set pieces and counter attacks, we will win the game.
Merson makes some good points.
But both teams on their day can play well and yet both teams can look so average.
Neither side is performing well enough to seriously challenge for top four from the league.
Realistically both teams are relying on the Europa League to drag themselves out of mid table mediocrity save their season and probably their respective Managers jobs.
So it’s really only pride at stake as the result of this game will have no bearing on either sides season.
A chance to just sit back and enjoy the show.🙂
Mourinho is performing worse than Arteta this season, but I just cannot see us beating them. I hope I am wrong!
Not sure why Merson is choosing this particular time to pump our tires…of course, the Spurs have had some periods of poor form this season, but less so than us…as for recently, Bale’s newly rediscovered form makes for a difficult front 3 to face, especially on the counter…we’ll have to really put in a shift to get a positive result, which means a this could be a real sideways snorefest…I can only hope Arteta reintroduces the Chelski game-plan and we put them on the back foot from the off…with both teams coming off Thursday road games, a tie seems the most likely result, but I hope I’m wrong and we get a “deserved” 3 points…for the love of god we better see our old buddy Marts out on the pitch this weekend
my bad, I forgot that Spurs played Zagreb at home yesterday, so they might be a little less taxed
Merson is one of my favourite Arsenal pundits. This prediction is a bit cheeky, but I give it a 50/50 call. It will definitely be a big influence on what Arteta’s future at Arsenal should be.
Well said sir Paul Merson, until Tottenham wins the Premier League, even if it is by tle lowest margin of points against teams & total number of points scored, they can never be compared with the best. & will never be the pride of North London. Truth hurts.