Paul Merson is confident that one Arsenal player could be the ‘X-factor’ for Mikel Arteta’s side as they give the impression of being to carry off Manchester City and win the Premier League.
The title race has ebbed and flowed throughout the season but looks set to go right right down to the ultimate weeks of the campaign.
City have blown cold and warm this season, but a hard-fought 1-0 win over Leeds United on Saturday evening saw them move inside two points of Arsenal at the highest of the table.
The Gunners can have the possibility to revive their five-point lead on Sunday, but face a potentially tricky encounter at home against fifth-place Chelsea.
And Merson said his former side should expect a troublesome test against the Blues, who’re fighting hard to maintain themselves in the combo for Champions League qualification next season.
‘For me, I feel they’ve got to take the sport to Chelsea,’ he said on Sky Sports. ‘Chelsea will probably sit back like they did within the semi-final and soak it up and check out and get Arsenal on the counter-attack.
‘But yeah, big, big football match this. I feel if Arsenal win this game, you possibly can tick one other big team off that they’ve beaten.’
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Arsenal should head into the encounter with loads of confidence after their dominant 4-1 win over arch-rivals Tottenham last weekend.
It was a very productive derby day for Viktor Gyokeres and Eberechi Eze, who each scored twice to make it a troublesome first outing for brand new Spurs boss, Igor Tudor.
Eze now has five goals in his two games against Tottenham this season, but has otherwise not hit those self same heights in an Arsenal shirt for big swathes of the season.
Merson, though, believes there’s way more to return from Eze in an Arsenal shirt, and said the 27-year-old may very well be considered one of the important thing players for the Gunners in the ultimate ten games of the season.
‘It’s a tough position to play, the ten,’ ha added. ‘You don’t just put someone in there and go, ‘go and do what you wish. You’ve got to make things occur’.
‘You’ve got to seek out pockets and Eze’s superb at that. I believed that was what he was bought for, was to get in those little pockets.
‘If you happen to get him on the ball, he can turn, he’s elegant, he goes past people like they’re not there.
‘That game was perfect for Arteta. They win the sport 4-1 and Gyokeres gets two goals and Eze scores two. If you happen to could pick two players you must rating the goals, that may be it.
‘If these two hit fire until the top of the season, Arsenal win the league in the event that they can go and be 8 out of 10 every week.
‘We said at the beginning of the season, when Eze got bought, he was the X Factor. He was the one which was going to get them over the road and I still think that may very well be the case, so long as he plays and Arteta trusts him.’
But asked if Eze has the total trust of Arteta yet, Merson replied: ‘No, I don’t think he does trust quite a lot of people. I feel Arteta plays on sparks, where he’ll watch someone, they’ll do something flawed, and you then’re out of the team.
‘I’ve seen it with Calafiori not way back. He had a nightmare game, gets ripped off, and doesn’t play again.
‘Eze gets caught on the far post against Matty Money at Aston Villa and don’t really play again. You’ve got to offer them a likelihood. Trust in them more, these players. I don’t think he does that enough, for my part.’
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