Wednesday, 5 November 2014

Merson Critical of Arsenal Wenger


Paul Merson, the former Arsenal striker, rounded on manager Arsène Wenger on Tuesday night after his side threw away a three-goal lead in the Champions League group game with Anderlecht at the Emirates Stadium.

Goals from Mikel Arteta, Alexis Sánchez and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had put the north Londoners within touching distance of the knockout stages, however a second-half collapse now leaves the door open to the Belgian champions despite having earned just two points from four games.

Merson, working as a Sky Sports pundit for the Group D match, blasted Arsenal as "tactically clueless" while adding that Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho would not have thrown such an, apparently unassailable, lead away.

"If I'm being honest I think they're tactically clueless. How you can be 3-0 up and attacking? This is not the first time, this happens a lot of times. It is absolutely clueless," said Merson.

"For me the manager's got to get a message on [to the players]. You're playing with international footballers, these are not little kids. These have played for their countries lots of times.

"They've played in World Cups, they've played a lot of Premier League games. They're all bombing forward. If you know football you say 'right, let's stop here. Let's have two banks of four, let's leave two up front and we'll go from there. Let them break us down.

"I bet you Jose Mourinho hasn't drawn too many games from being 3-0 up. That tells you everything."



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