Paul Merson has claimed that Arsenal look set to stay in contention for the Champions League places throughout the season, and claims they will be joined by Liverpool, Spurs and Manchester City come the end of the campaign.
The Gunners have started extremely brightly, winning five of their opening six Premier League matches to go top of the table, and appear to be better prepared for the new season than a number of our rivals.
Despite a slow start for the Reds however, Merson isn’t ruling out Liverpool to come back and claim one of the four Champions League places, but snubbing Manchester United, who have won their last four including beating us last weekend, and Chelsea, who have only just changed manager after splashing out heavily this summer, is quite the statement.
“It’s still early doors, but I think the Premier League top-four this season will be Manchester City, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal in whatever order,” Merson wrote in his column at SportsKeeda.
“Chelsea will obviously have a thing or two to say, but we’ll have to wait and see how [Graham] Potter performs at Stamford Bridge.
“As for Manchester United, I don’t think they’ll make it because they still have a lot of work to do in terms of their squad. They’ve won four league games in a row, including victories against Liverpool and Arsenal, but I’m yet to be convinced by them.
“Arsenal are good and I believe they are in there for the long run, while I’m still backing Liverpool to turn it around in the coming weeks to secure a UEFA Champions League spot.”
While I do believe we are set for a strong season, injuries could well hamper us, but at present you would have to be crazy-biased against us to think we don’t look good for a place in the top four. Tipping Liverpool and Spurs are maybe a little tougher given that United and Chelsea aren’t too far away.
Patrick
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The break this weekend is very welcomed and favourable to us Arsenal.
The squad is very thing and now can recuperate.
How we would survive Lokonga playing midfield anchor role is our biggest worry. He is not commanding enough on the ball nor defensively available enough off the ball. He has to keep his applications simple but, efficient and untiring.
Elsewhere, we need Nelson back ASAP so Martinelli can earn his rests too.