Right now, Spurs are supposedly playing the best football they've played in years
The first thing he says. Last year we played our prettiest football, this year we're a couple of points ahead of where we were last year.
while Arsenal are getting stick in the papers every week.
Yes, due to their FA cup and CL hopes going up in smoke. Not due to their league form. They're maybe a couple of points from where they were last year as far as points go. That said they were getting stick in the papers "every week" around the 2nd NLD last year too.
And yet there could just be a one-point gap between them at the end of this match.
True, or there could be a 7 point gap. At the moment there is a 4 point gap between us and Arsenal and a 5 point gap between us and City (2nd place).
If he's going for "this is Tottenham's best season and Arsenal's worst season and there's nothing in it", that would have been fitting for last year, but it was about a 10 point gap around the 2nd NLD then which could have become a 13 point gap? Overall though, what he is implying with his first sentence (the above three points) is wrong, but what he has actually said has a few points that are probably technically true (we only have to be 1 point ahead of last season's points at this stage to technically be playing our best football in years, I guess... But he goes on to say we're not playing well, so if he meant we're dominating games more than we did last year, I disagree.
The expectations have changed and that's what makes this such an important match. A few years ago, the North London derby wasn't such a big game for the Arsenal players - they looked at Chelsea and Manchester United instead - but it's definitely a big game this year if they want to finish fourth.
People speak about the decline of Arsenal and the fact they haven't been winning trophies, but if they were to miss out on the Champions League for the first time since 1996 then that would be the drop of all drops. That would be where it has all gone wrong for Arsene Wenger.
The expectations have changed at Tottenham too.[/color]
For the first time in at least 15 years, Tottenham fans will turn up and expect to win on Sunday and if they don't win they will be very disappointed. There have been times where they've thought they should win, but they will expect to open up a seven-point gap on Sunday.
And in a funny way, I think that could be to Arsenal's advantage. Tottenham's players will be under pressure to have a go at them and as a result I think Arsenal's midfielders will get a lot of the ball to influence the game.
Disagree. We've expected to win before. I remember Merson bricking himself in plenty of NLD predictions before... That said, there are people that'll believe Spurs would lose to a league 2 side in a cup final and there are people that feel Spurs would beat Barca at WHL... That said, it's hard to judge that particular point.
The only thing I'll say is, I was far more confident the last couple of times we went to their place than I am this time, even though we're at home. A draw doesn't seem impossible, although we should win. Of course fans will be disappointed if their team loses, especially a derby.
I don't think our players are under pressure to have a go at Arsenal, at least, not like he means. A draw suits us more than it suits Arsenal, Arsenal can't defend counter attacks and we're excellent at counter attacking.
Yes, Arsenal's midfielders will probably get a lot of the ball. Bayern controlled the game against Arsenal without dominating possession and Real Madrid controlled the game against Barca despite only having about 35% possession. Considering our style is a lot like Real Madrid's, I'm not going into this match thinking about possession in the same way I would have last year. Last year, both teams would have tried to have the most possession. This year, whenever we steal possession, we should be attacking them quickly rather than letting them get into shape.
I actually don't think Spurs have been playing great at all. If you take away Gareth Bale's goals in the last month, I dread to think where they'd be. You can't expect a player to keep putting balls in the top corner every week - even the best players in the world can't do that - and sooner or later it will stop.
This part is technically true. Assuming he means we haven't been outpassing teams to death, fine. But last year we played well and then stopped... This year we're grinding more... That said, our defence has been playing very well, Bale has been playing very well and other people have put in good performances too. But we're not the same side we were last season, our team focus is different. It's very difficult for a counter attacking side to get the kind of results and put in the kind of performances Merson is talking about because if we start beating the hell out of a team, they just defend their loss and come out ok. Liverpool and Arsenal have been great at beating some weak teams by lots of goals but completely failing to play well against sides that are closer to their level. Arsenal's game with Chelsea where they did nothing at all for the first half and found themselves 2-0 at half time is hardly Arsenal playing well... Hell, Arsenal struggled to beat Villa at home in their last game, so I'm not sure Merson can talk about Spurs not playing well when Arsenal are hardly playing any better. Both teams go into the match with 3 league wins in a row... We have a longer unbeaten run than Arsenal. It totally depends how you take what Merson is saying and how closely you look to see if something is technically true or not. But Sunderland and Villa should both have got something against Arsenal out of their 2 previous league games, so meh.
Very few clubs are playing well right now. If you just look at performances, Soton are playing amazingly well... But they've only won once under their new manager. So is it a performance thing Merson is talking about? He can't be talking about results and aside from Man United, no one has been doing both.
We have countless responses to "take away Bale's goals"... On the other hand, he is a cheeky bastard to go there after what RVP did for them last season.
(Also, a shot on target at the middle of the goal has a very good chance of beating Cheesey, as his last few matches proves, so at least we don't need players to hit the top corner, unlike West Ham...)
Don't get me wrong, the lad has been outstanding. What I like about him is that he scores important goals. He doesn't score the last goal in a 5-0 win, he gets the crucial ones.
Arsenal won't do anything special to stop him though. I watched them play Bayern Munich two weeks ago, who have got top-drawer players all around the pitch, and they didn't change the way they played.
So they won't change for Tottenham, who can't be mentioned in the same breath as Bayern Munich. And to be honest, I don't see Arsenal losing this game, I really don't.
They did make changes for Bayern, which is one of the first times I've ever seen Wenger do that, although overall I agree Wenger will just take his usual arrogant view.
This is the guy that said "Falcao can't lace RVP's boots", so I'll let the Bayern comment go.
As for him not seeing Arsenal losing, that is his opinion. I just think it's quite funny that the previous thing he said was "Arsenal are just going to treat Bale the same way they'd treat a player in a relegation team" and then he goes on to say Arsenal won't lose.
Spurs will almost start with 10 men because Emmanuel Adebayor doesn't do anything and if Arsenal's forwards play well I think they will get a result.
Firstly, I believe Merson is too stupid to be even thinking about goading Ade into getting sent off. So he's just offering Ade a chance to prove someone else wrong, which seems to motivate Ade more than anything else.
As for why I disagree with the comment, it's a stupid comment and all Ade has to do to prove him wrong is defend set pieces well, win a free kick, counter attack or run without the ball and he'd be technically doing something.
But that's not actually the main reason I disagree with the comment. The main reason I disagree with the comment is because he clearly hasn't been watching Adebayor. The guy that ran the length of the pitch to celebrate when he scored against Arsenal for City. The player that seems to score whenever he plays them. If we were playing 15 or the 20 PL sides, I could understand him making the stupid comment even if I didn't agree with it, but against Arsenal he is a totally different player.
There are plenty of players that score against Spurs and do fudge all against everyone else, if I were making a comment calling one of those brick, I wouldn't say it about them playing Spurs, I would say it before they played someone else.
-------------------
Ultimately, it's an opinion piece, so it's not as simple as him not checking his facts, he isn't going to check his facts. It's slightly strange that so many of his opinions were presented as facts and he has some fudging stupid opinions.
The funny thing is, I've seen 3 prediction pages, Merson is the only person who doesn't think Arsenal will win.
Also, I apologize for being lazy with the green and red, I probably should have used a third colour for neutral and changed the font colour for every point he made rather than generally summing up big blocks with one colour.
The amount of people on here that seem to be closely looking at what Merson wrote in order to find some technical justification to defend him is disappointing. To be honest, it's not what he said, it's how he said it.
Right now, Spurs are supposedly playing the best football they've played in years
I actually don't think Spurs have been playing great at all
I leave you with this. He either can't make up his own mind or just wanted to use two fudging opposites to show why he "can't see Arsenal losing"...
Pick one, you stupid fudge. Either "Arsenal are going to pick up a point because Spurs are playing the best football they've played in years" or "Arsenal are going to pick up a point because I don't think Spurs have been playing great at all".
The problem with using the first point as a reason for thinking Arsenal will pick up a point is that it doesn't make any sense at all.
The problem with using the second point as a reason for thinking Arsenal will pick up a point is we have a better recent record than they do and if he's talking about performances then getting battered for a half and holding on for a 1-0 against Sunderland and getting an 85th minute winner vs Villa at home are not better performances than we've put in lately.
