Paul Merson fires bleak warning to Mikel Arteta ahead of Arsenal vs Liverpool | Football

Mikel Arteta’s side fell to a shock 2-0 defeat at Bournemouth last weekend and already find themselves four points off the early league-leaders, who they face at the Emirates on this weekend.

It was only Arsenal’s first loss of the season but Merson reckons that another one on Sunday would already spell the end of their title challenge as seven points would be too big a gap to bridge.

Manchester City host Southampton on Saturday, which Merson feels is a foregone conclusion, so defeat for the Gunners this weekend would leave them seven behind the Reds and six behind the champions.

‘I’d be shocked If Arsenal lost this and went on and won the league,’ Merson told Sky Sports. ‘I’d be absolutely amazed, I’d be flabbergasted.

‘They’re not just chasing one team down, they’re chasing two. I know everybody will be sitting at home going, “there’s 29 games left,” but at the start of the season when there was 38 games left, if I said I’ll have Man City and Liverpool to win the league and you can have Arsenal but you’ve got to give me seven points head start, you wouldn’t do it in a million years, so you wouldn’t do it now with 29 games to go.

‘Arsenal would be out of the title [race] for me, they’d be out, I just can’t see how they’d catch that up with the figues that Man City have put up over the past five or six years.’

Liverpool have won seven of their eight Premier League games under new manager Arne Slot and Merson has been thoroughly impressed with the attitude of the Dutchman.

‘When managers come into top clubs, it’s usually with an ego,’ said the former England forward. ‘They change players and formations to stamp a bit of character. But Arne Slot has come in and said “There’s nothing wrong with this team”.

‘Maybe he’s asked for a bit more control in games, but he hasn’t had to do anything drastic.’

Arteta is not best-placed for the huge clash with Liverpool, dealing with a number of selection headaches ahead of the game.

William Saliba is suspended after his red card against Bournemouth, while Riccardo Calafiori, Bukayo Saka, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Jurrien Timber and Martin Odegaard are all doubts.