Paul Merson has cast doubt on Arsenal's chances of beating Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Wednesday, saying he cannot see where the goals will come from. In a column for Sky Sports, he argued that Arsenal have become efficient rather than threatening, and that may be enough to grind out results in the Premier League but not against elite European opposition.
The timing matters because Arsenal are heading into one of their biggest tests of the season after a narrow win over Nottingham Forest and a defeat to Brighton that, in Merson's words, scared them. He said Arsenal had gone back to being an efficient machine after that Brighton loss, but also warned that he had never seen a team have so much possession and look so little like scoring. His verdict was blunt: he just cannot see how Arsenal beat Bayern Munich this week.
Merson's criticism was not only about the result. He said other teams have now seen the blueprint for playing Arsenal by sitting back and defending, and he pointed to the wingers not going past anyone and nobody running beyond the ball. He also said Arsenal would have to outscore teams against Bayern Munich, because one goal may be enough in the league but not in this setting. For him, Wednesday's match is a marker for where Arsenal are in the Champions League.
That is where his view turns on quality rather than confidence. Merson said Kai Havertz is a good footballer, but he does not see him or Viktor Gyokeres as the difference-maker, and he said the Bayern Munich centre-halves would not be giving Havertz sleepless nights. He summed up his point with a line that cuts to the heart of his argument: X factor is what wins a Champions League and he does not see that at Arsenal.
The same theme ran through his comments on Eberechi Eze, who was substituted at half-time against Nottingham Forest. Merson said Eze would still have been on the pitch if he had played like that for Crystal Palace, but at Arsenal the standard is different. Big clubs require different performances, he said, and a player cannot simply be a free spirit and play his own game. Arsenal may still look like league winners to him, but he believes the margin for error disappears against Bayern Munich, where a neat structure without a cutting edge may not be enough.
