Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson fancied Arsenal to batter Tottenham in the north London derby – but his prediction didn’t age well as the two sides played out a 2-2 draw
Paul Merson was wrong to predict the north London derby after calling for Arsenal to “absolutely slaughter” Tottenham.
Merson, who spent more than a decade with the Gunners during his iconic playing career, was adamant that Mikel Arteta’s side will crush their bitter rivals on Sunday. But the match ended 2-2 thanks to Son Heung-min’s double – leaving Merson with an egg in the face.
Speaking on Sky Sports the day before the match, Merson said: “I’m bullish, very bullish. I can’t see anything but an Arsenal win. I think they will absolutely slaughter them, I do. Absolutely rip them to shreds.
“I don’t think [Spurs] will change the way they play. Man United had 14 shots against them in the first half; give Arsenal 14 shots tomorrow and we will see what happens. It’s end to end, it’s good football, I like the way they play, I like the manager. It’s gung-ho football. But you don’t play gung-ho football against better players than you.
“There is no doubt that Arsenal have better players than Tottenham on every field. You talk about [James] Maddison, a good player but you wouldn’t replace him with [Martin] Odegaard any day of the week. [Yves] Bissouma did well, but in my opinion, you wouldn’t choose him over [Declan] Rice.
“Everywhere on the field they are better players. There aren’t many Spurs players on this team, and if they opened this match tomorrow, Arsenal would destroy Tottenham. And I mean, destroy them.
Arsenal started quickly at Emirates Stadium and took the lead in the 26th minute thanks to Cristian Romero’s own goal, but things did not go as planned. Son restored parity shortly after half-time, then canceled out Arsenal’s second goal just 27 seconds later after Bukayo Saka fouled the penalty kick.
Speaking after the match, Arteta made it clear that he felt this was a case of Arsenal losing two points. He say:
“We were disappointed not to win the match, especially as we were ahead twice. It’s a shame we couldn’t win. When we scored again and immediately conceded, it affected the team’s morale.”
Spurs head coach Ange Postecoglou seemed more pleased with the result after seeing his side come up against a “better team”. He say:
“It’s not about being happy with the result. You can get a result and a draw if you think you’ve escaped defeat, but I didn’t think so today. I thought we were going to face a team high level.”
He did, however, take issue with the penalty that was given against Romero for handball. He added: “It seems like some times it hits your hand and it’s a penalty and other times it’s not a penalty. It is what it is mate, you hope these things even themselves out.”
