Paul Merson Offers Prediction For Arsenal vs Newcastle, Man City vs Tottenham

We’ve just had a full round of midweek fixtures but the games are coming thick and fast and there is another exciting weekend of Premier League football to look forward to.

Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson has offered his weekend predictions and he feels there is going to be goals in Saturday evening’s huge clash at the Etihad.

Runaway leaders Manchester City entertain top four chasing Tottenham in the 5.30pm kick off on Saturday and Merson is predicting a 3-1 victory for Pep Guardiola’s side.

City maintained their 11-point advantage over Manchester United with a 4-0 win at Swansea last night to extend their winning streak to 15 games sparking talk of the Citizens being the greatest side in Premier League history.

Merson feels such talk is a little premature but the former Arsenal attacker still feels City will ease to another three points on Saturday as he believes Tottenham will miss the likes of Toby Alderweireld and Davinson Sanchez too much.

In his column for Sky Sports, Merson said:

Manchester City v Tottenham (Saturday, 5.30pm)

If Tottenham had their best team out they would give them a game but I don’t think they will do it with the defenders they have out. Toby Alderweireld is probably the best defender in the world in my opinion and he is badly missed. And Davinson Sanchez is out along with Victor Wanyama, so they are missing big players. Otherwise it would have been game on.

I do think we are getting a bit carried away with City though. It’s great what they are doing but great teams win things and they haven’t won anything yet. They will win the league, but we have short memories of how great Manchester United were and also the Arsenal ‘Invincibles’ team.

City are playing great, don’t get me wrong, but you have to remember that 10 years ago anybody could beat anybody. The gap between top and bottom now is enormous, whereas 10 years ago a team like Stoke could be bottom of the league and you would go there and it would be one of your hardest games of the season. That’s not the case now.

PAUL PREDICTS: 3-1

Merson has also had his say on former club Arsenal and the pundit is predicting the Gunners to get back to winning ways with a resounding 4-0 win over Newcastle on Saturday.

Arsenal have stuttered again in recent games as defeat to Man Utd has been following by away draws at Southampton and West Ham leaving them sitting down in seventh position in the table.

However, Merson feels a home game against an out-of-form Magpies team is the perfect opportunity for Arsene Wenger’s men to get back on track with a comfortable victory at the Emirates.

Merson continued in his Sky Sports column:

Arsenal v Newcastle (Saturday, 3pm)

Nothing has changed at Arsenal. We are 17 games into the season and they are below Burnley. That is embarrassing. You can understand after five or six games, if someone gets off to a flying start, but this is 17 games in. I don’t know where Arsenal are going. I have said before that Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil will probably stay but now I think they have to go because they are doing nothing.

Still, I expect them to win this game. If they could have handpicked any team to play it would be Newcastle, who have completely gone.

Why have Arsenal done well at home and not away? Because it’s easier to play at home. You have a lot of the ball and teams come and play a different way. The teams that win trophies go away from home and stand up and win games.

PAUL PREDICTS: 4-0

So if Merson’s predictions come true then Arsenal will leapfrog Tottenham in the table and they could even climb in to the top four if other results also go their way while City will take another step closer to winning the title.