- Arsenal beat Manchester United and return to the top of the Premier League
- But Manchester City will win the title if they beat both Tottenham and West Ham.
- Erik ten Hag has ‘lost his mind’ in ‘CAR-CRASH’ head coach role at Man United – Listen to the It’s all starting! podcast
Paul Merson has joked that Tottenham fans will celebrate if Manchester City score against them, as they await a late Arsenal title collapse.
Mikel Arteta’s side beat Manchester United 1-0 at Old Trafford to move one point clear of City, who travel to Spurs in a crucial clash on Tuesday night.
Champions City remain in control of their own destiny in the title race despite being usurped on Sunday. They have two games left, against Spurs and West Ham, while Arsenal will play just one more game when they host Everton at the Emirates.
Regardless of City’s result in north London, the Premier League winner will not be crowned until next Sunday, in a dramatic conclusion to a fight between two sides.
But Merson, who played for Arsenal between 1985 and 1997, has comically predicted that the Spurs faithful could well find themselves cheering City against their team.
Arsenal beat Manchester United and returns to the top of the Premier League table
City still have the advantage and will win the title if they beat Tottenham and West Ham
He also believes Arsenal must count on Liverpool beating Aston Villa on Monday to leave Tottenham’s faint hopes of a top-four finish intact when they face City.
“If Villa are beaten tomorrow, Tottenham will still be in the race (for the Champions League),” Merson said during Sky Sports’ live coverage.
“So they need to get something (against City) if Villa are beaten.”
“Every Arsenal fan needs Villa to be beaten tomorrow. If Liverpool get a result, Tottenham will have to remain hungry on Tuesday.
“If Liverpool win by two or three goals, suddenly (Villa) will play Crystal Palace. Nobody wants to play Palace at the moment and (Spurs) go to Sheffield United.
Paul Merson has joked that Tottenham fans will cheer any City goal against them in midweek.
Spurs may play City without Champions League football on the line depending on results
“If Villa gets a result, there is no way.” They won’t play for anything. I’ve played in those games… they don’t want Arsenal to win the league no matter what.
“There will come a time when Tottenham fans will applaud if Manchester City scores, and they will. The only thing they don’t want is for Arsenal to win the league… the only thing.
“But if they beat Villa, they have no choice but to remain hungry.”
Arsenal were unconvincing against a mixed United side, but sealed the three points after Leandro Trossard scored the only goal of the game after 20 minutes.
Casemiro, who was slow to defend against fire, played with Kai Havertz and the striker fired a low cross for Trossard to find at the foot of the near post.
Leandro Trossard got into the near post after some slow United defending.
Mikel Arteta praised Arsenal’s performance but admitted they made mistakes after scoring
“We needed a result today in a really difficult place,” Arteta told the BBC.
“Our history did not favor today’s result, there was a lot at stake and we are happy with the result. We started the game very well and were dominant.
“We scored the goal and I think the goal led us to a bit bad things because we started playing too safe, too sideways, too far back and without enough structure.
“We started to lose the ball in good areas and that is a danger for them. But we defended well and didn’t concede too much.”
