Paul Merson says he’s ‘half-scared’ about Arsenal’s title probabilities following the side’s 2-2 draw with Wolves and believes ‘something is missing’ in Mikel Arteta’s squad.
Top-of-the-table Arsenal seemed to be cruising towards a snug victory against rock-bottom Wolves after Bukayo Saka headed home to open the scoring in just the fifth minute.
Piero Hincapie doubled the Gunners’ advantage with a composed strike midway through the second half, with the visitors seemingly in total control at a rain-drenched Molineux.
However the home team launched a shocking fightback against all odds, kick-started by the impressive Hugo Bueno, who beat David Raya with an impressive long-range strike to halve the deficit on the hour-mark.
And after a tense final half-hour, the pressure eventually told as Wolves debutant Samuel Edozie hammered the ball in off Riccardo Calafiori – following a fumble from Raya – to equalise on the death.
The draw secured Wolves only their tenth point of your complete top-flight campaign. The leaders, meanwhile, squandered the chance to maneuver seven points clear of second-placed Manchester City at the opposite end of the table.
Arteta’s men will look to regroup in double-quick time and get their title charge back on course once they return to motion away to bitter rivals Tottenham this weekend.
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‘Manchester City now have Newcastle and Leeds and also you’d take that over Tottenham and Chelsea,’ ex-Arsenal midfielder Merson said following the Gunners’ setback within the Sky Sports studio.
‘I wouldn’t wish to be in Arsenal’s shoes if it [miss out on the title] happens again.
‘I used to be quite shocked by Mikel Arteta’s post-match interview then. It’s the primary time, really, that I’ve seen him not majorly positive.
‘Often, he comes out, “We’ve done this, we’ve done that”, and he’ll be saying, “Oh, we deserved it here, they deserved it here”.
‘As an alternative of coming out saying, “We’re five points clear, so long as we don’t get beaten by Manchester City, we win the league”, nevertheless it wasn’t like that, though.
‘I used to be a bit fearful with that interview. You may only achieve this much to the team and whenever you’re watching that, there’s something missing. I can’t put my finger on it but there’s something missing.
‘Something is missing and I wouldn’t wish to be of their shoes in the event that they don’t win the league this 12 months.’
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In a while in his post-match evaluation, Merson was reminded of something Patrick Vieira had said following the side’s 3-2 defeat at home to Manchester United last month.
‘In the event that they don’t win the league this 12 months, I remember Patrick Vieira saying before the Manchester United game, when he was on with Roy Keane, he said it was now or never,’ he recalled.
‘I’m beginning to think that too now. I used to be very bullish about Arsenal winning the league. That’s half-scared me tonight.’
Chatting with Sky Sports shortly after the ultimate whistle, Bukayo Saka gave an insight into the gloomy mood within the dressing room following a second successive draw.
‘Yeah, it’s very flat,’ the England forward, who wore the captain’s armband within the absence of Martin Odegaard, said.
‘We’re very upset with the result and particularly with the way in which we played within the second half. Removed from the standards we’ve set this season.
‘It’s time for us to reflect on the previous few performances and fix the problems immediately, so we are able to get back to winning games, go on a run and construct momentum because we’ve lost that a bit straight away.’
Will Arsenal win the title this season?
In keeping with Saka, Arsenal must get back to the ‘basics’ that helped them open up such an imperious lead over their title rivals before their wobble.
‘I just think we now have to get back to our level,’ he added.
‘We’d like to do the fundamentals right and we’ve got good enough quality on this team to win games, especially within the games where we’ve been dropping points in recently.
‘We’d like to repair that and that’s all our focus is straight away.’
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