Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has come under fire from former Gunners star Paul Merson, who believes the club are poorly prepared tactically.
Merson, who turned out for Arsenal in the late 1990’s, reckons even Hull City boss Marco Silva is better prepared for opponents than Wenger, while also offering more variation.
Wenger’s position at the Emirates Stadium is under scrutiny once again after Arsenal suffered damaging back-to-back Premier League defeats to Watford and Chelsea.
Next up for Arsenal is Hull, before a crunch Champions League clash with Bayern Munich.
Merson says that Wenger sets his teams to play only one way, while other teams turn up with multiple plans.
‘Tactically they are not good enough,’ Merson told Sky Sports.
‘Three weeks ago, Hull went to Chelsea and set up to make it very difficult for Chelsea to win that game and Hull were unlucky. They were always in the game.
‘Wenger sets up the same old way every week: “we’ve got good players, so let’s go out and play”.
‘They have once tried to stifle a team away from home – and that was Man City the year before last. They won the game and they were absolutely outstanding.’
“They had Santi Cazorla that day and that was the only time I’ve really ever seen them set up to stop a team and then play from a base.
“You watch these other teams go and do it and you ask why can’t Arsenal do it? For me, that’s when you have to say the manager is getting something horribly wrong.”
Despite the criticism, Merson went on to add that he reckons Wenger will stay on as Arsenal manager.
“I think he’ll stay,” he added. “I think he’ll see out the DFS sale if I’m being honest and he’ll still be the manager when that sale finishes!
“He will sign and everything will be rosy again on Saturday. They will win, they play early and they will go up to third and everything is rosy again.
“Now they have to make the top four.”
By Steve Osborne @BlizzardSteve75
