Paul Merson has claimed that Arsenal are just ‘one signing away from being title contenders’, and calls out Piers Morgan as ‘living in the past’ by calling for the head of Mikel Arteta.
The Gunners have endured a tough January, failing to win a single match, which cost us our place in the EFL Cup final as well as seeing us eliminated by Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup.
All may have been forgotten if we could have beaten Burnley in our last outing, which would have seen us go into this break fourth in the Premier League table, whilst having ended our winless run, but the Clarets frustrated us with their solid defending and un-footballing tactics, and we had to settle for a 0-0 scoreline.
Piers Morgan recently called for the manager to be sacked after our torrid run of form, and his comments have earned a reaction from
“Piers Morgan is living in the past saying Arsenal should sack Mikel Arteta if they don’t finish in the top four.
“They’re one signing away from being title contenders next season if they can the goalscorer they need – and they have the money to do it.
“I know where Piers is coming from when they’re playing once a week, and they’re basically out of every competition already this season.
“But this is a young team. This is what you’re going to get. They will play unbelievably one week and then be awful the next.”
Even if we had signed a Vlahovic or an out and out goalscorer, I’m not sure anyone would really be tipping us to challenge for the title next season, but I do agree with Merson’s point about our youngsters, and that the lack of expectation on his job has allowed him to blood that extra experience into the younger crop without much issue.
Are you more on-side of Merson or Piers on this? Could we really be just one major signing away from challenging for top honours?
Patrick
Proper DM would go a long way
Can’t fault PM for his optimism but even if Edu
was able to convince DV to make the switch to
NL this window Arsenal would still be a few players
short of seriously competing for the EPL title.
Now if by some unexpected stroke of divine
intervention happens over the next 72 hours and
AFC is able to bring in J David, Ruben Neves, D
Zakaria and N Mazzaroui then Mr. Merson might
be on to something for next years potential title
charge.
Unfortunately I give the likelihood of that scenario
being the equivalent of either Edu or MA having a
bad hair day. Just won’t happen.
I get what you’re trying to say Ace, but if the unthinkable was to happen, as you’ve suggested, and those 4 players did come in, how would this possibly mean that Merson was “on to something”, as he suggested we were ONLY 1 player away from competing for titles???
I should of been more specific, as the overall
sentiment of Merson’s claim may come to fruition
if Arsenal bring in the players I mentioned over
the next 72 hours.
His one player opinion misses the mark IMWO.
Merson has been on the sauce again…
I think our starting 11 is not far of, when all availble, to be able to compete with any team put in front of them in PL. Which for me means they would have a good chance on paper for a top 4 finish.
Our problem is that we are paper-thin in the depth of our squad as we have seen recently. If we qualify for European football next season it will hurt us big time in our PL efforts with the current squad we have.
We have very little coverage or depth in midfield, we have not much cover at right-back, we are thin at CB (as soon as White or Gabriel are inured we are vulnerable, and we have no strikers to speak of.
If you play European football you need much more depth than we have and if you play CL you nearly need two competitive teams. We are far away from having two starting 11s capable of competing for agaisnt CL caliber opposition and against the top 8 PL opposition.
Non of these shortcomings will go away with doing away with MA.
A proper DM & Goal Scoring CF
Get these 2 positions sorted along with Saliba return then we have a squad to continuously challenge for top4 and high every season.
I think Mikel has a problem with man management of players and big characters. It’s called ego and maybe he is right in some of his decisions but Matteo, Dino, Saliba & Torreira would do better than what we have tbh.
Sell Xhaka, Sign Neves.
DM – Bissouma
CF – Johnathon David
We need more midfield options as we see so things even more so Calum is gone to cover!
Sean I agree with two of your ideas, just not sold David.
Sadly I read we are chasing Calvert Lewin, for a lot of money.
I would rather we just bought Bissouma (or someone of his calibre) and then chased a CF in the summer.
I agree, we are maybe one or two signings from title contenders, that isnt the problem. We have a top 4 squad now and that isn’t the problem, i also dont think its Piers problem either. Merse has the wrong end of the stick.
Until Arteta gets this team playing with some consistency, top 4 is a pipe dream.
Solid group of players, young talent that will get better, but too many times they lack intensity, and once we go down a goal we are cooked.
Don’t think we ever came back to win a match we trailed in points.
Until these issuesare fixed, players additions won’t matter
i wouldnt say we are that close
were definitely not only 1 signing away
We lose one of MA’s favoured 10 outfield players and the team goes to crap, especially if its TP or Xhaka, but sadly that is the case.
We just dont have the strength in depth, even more so now with teh major clearout thats happening
i’d say its 6-7 and abuot 2-3 more years of experience to the current crop to be in a position to say we can challenge
One player away from challenging for the EPL? I wish. Too many G&Ts. A top striker, a top midfield player and get William Saliba back would get us into the top 4 maybe. The big 2 are miles ahead….miles.
tbh this window has been rather confusing, in that if MA honestly believes that we could realistically compete for a top 4 position what he’s done so far makes functionally no sense unless something significant is already in the works…of course, it’s not unlike this organization to wait until the 11th hour to make moves, unfortunately they’re usually underwhelming and/or uninspiring, Ozil and Auba notwithstanding
I would suggest that the greater likelihood is that MA didn’t expect us to be in the mix at this juncture, considering the youth movement and the potential competition for spots, and as such he was planning all along to focus more on outgoing than incoming moves in January…sometimes overachieving, in a sense, or the unexpected underachieving of others leads to a very problematic situation, as it raises some serious questions regarding how one might proceed in light of a new and somewhat unanticipated set of circumstances…can he look a gift horse in the mouth, now that he’s raised expectations, or does he proceed with the original “plan”
the last time this dynamic emerged he pissed the bed and deviated from the process by purchasing Willian and opting for a more veteran-laden lineup, so will he stay the course or double-down again…that said, buying quality young players like a Vlahovic doesn’t count as a knee-jerk reaction, as they serve both purposes, but if he brings in loans without buy-on clauses or veteran players who will negatively impact the developmental process, then all bets are off and I fear for the future prospects of our club with this manager in charge
Yeah Hangeland