Paul Merson: Arsene Wenger Has Forgotten The Importance Of The North London Derby

By The Editor
on 5th May 2017

Paul Merson questions whether Wenger understands the derby…

Arsenal legend Paul Merson had some harsh words for Arsene Wenger and the players after what was a pathetic performance in our defeat to Spurs in the derby at the weekend.

With our top four hopes on the line, not to mention the occasion marked the final derby at White Hart Lane, we failed to turn up with the required performance.

Mauricio Pochettino’s men looked hungrier than us and, in all fairness, the 2-0 scoreline flattered us massively and Merson feels what we witnessed was unacceptable.

While many shift the blame away from Wenger, Merson laid it squarely at his door.

“I don’t miss playing football anymore, the one game I do miss is when the fixtures come out and it’s Arsenal v Tottenham,” Merson told ArsenalFanTV.

“When I watched that the other night, them players don’t really get it.

“I don’t know if Arsene gets it if I’m being honest. I worked for Sky at the semi-final (League Cup, 2008) when he completely and utterly mugged it off and they got well rinsed.”

Accusing Wenger of “not getting” the importance of the derby is probably extreme, but I sometimes wonder if he makes it his business to translate that to the players.

The boss has always been a manager who guards against adding any added pressure to his players, which often sees him play down the importance of any specific fixture.

While it may have been a good tactic when we possessed self-motivating players, our current crop clearly seem ill-prepared when heading into such encounters.

Check out Merson’s full post-mortem on all things Arsenal in the video above.