Paul Merson tears into Arsenal and predicts how Wolverhampton Wanderers will do against Gunners

Follow us on Google Discover

Arsenal travel to Molineux on Wednesday night for their Premier League game.

Arsenal legend Paul Merson has heavily criticised the Gunners ahead of their Premier League midweek game at Wolverhampton Wanderers, tipping the hosts to get something from the game.

Molineux will see Nuno Espirito Santo’s charges hoping to get back on track after suffering a downturn in form in recent weeks which has seen them slip from seventh to 10th in the table.

Wolves’ last three games in all competitions have yielded two losses – against Watford in the FA Cup and against struggling Southampton – and a draw against another relegation-battling side in Brighton & Hove Albion.

Arsenal, meanwhile, are not exactly firing on all cylinders either – while they might have impressed against Napoli in both legs of their Europa League quarter-final tie, they have lost to Crystal Palace, Watford and Everton in April.

Merson, writing for Sky Sports News, was not impressed with how Unai Emery’s charges lost against the Eagles, who “couldn’t get a kick” against Manchester City and had to engage in “damage limitation” in the 3-1 loss at Selhurst Park on 14 April.

“You can talk about Arsenal’s team selection against Palace but you can’t defend like they did,” said Merson. “They could have had Diego Maradona playing up front but you won’t win matches if you have defending like that.”

Merson then moved on to the prospect of Wolves, who have struggled against some of the sides lower down the Premier League table who set up to defend, but generally impress against those who engage in more attacking football, like Arsenal “will”, and predicted a 2-2 draw on Wednesday night.

“Wolves are a good side when teams have a go at them like Arsenal will,” he said. “Look at the teams Wolves have dropped points against, Huddersfield have done the double against them, Brighton sat back and got a draw, so did Newcastle.

“They have lost points against teams outside the top six because they play deep against them and they need to learn how to break that down.”