In his latest column, Paul Merson dissects the Premier League title race and Tottenham vs Man City in the FA Cup; Merse: "Liverpool can't churn out wins the way Man City can"
Wednesday 24 January 2024 08:52, UK
In his latest Sky Sports column, Paul Merson dissects the Premier League title race and previews Man City's FA Cup tie at Spurs.
Liverpool's win at Bournemouth was a big football result. That was a potential banana skin. No Mohamed Salah, no Trent Alexander-Arnold, you saw Bournemouth beat Newcastle then go to Manchester United and win.
There's a time to play teams and that wasn't a good time to play Bournemouth. Liverpool came away from that game with flying colours.
I've always said Liverpool will be there at the end of the season. They just have loads of forwards - five of them in fact - and they all score goals. You see Darwin Nunez missing loads of chances - I would rather have a forward missing loads than one who looks like he's never going to get one.
Luis Diaz, Nunez, Cody Gakpo and Diogo Jota - bar Salah there's not a lot between them. So they've always got someone - that's a massive advantage for them.
If you take Erling Haaland out of the Man City attack, it's weaker as there's no-one there to replace him with. Yes they have Julian Alvarez, who is a good player and will do a job, but he's not Haaland.
I won't say Liverpool are title favourites though. City can just churn, churn and churn out wins. They can go 10 games without losing, easily. Look at them now, they've won eight out of their last nine matches [in all competitions].
Their squad is just too big. They've had one of Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne out since the start of the season and they're still there.
The difference between City, Liverpool and Arsenal is City can go for 10 wins in a row and nobody will pay any attention to it. If Liverpool and Arsenal do it, it's a big thing.
And it could all be over for Liverpool in the title race in one week. They play Chelsea at home - you have no idea which Chelsea is going to turn up. They can play, so that's a hard game.
Then they go Arsenal away, and if it goes like the way the FA Cup game went then Arsenal will win that game. Before you know it, it's all over for Liverpool.
I think Arsenal are still in the title race. They had a big result the other day and they're still there and thereabouts, so you have to put them in the equation.
But Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah won't score as many goals between them as Salah - and he is on the right wing. That's a massive advantage for Liverpool, who will be in the race for a long time if they keep playing as they are.
Man City still haven't scored a goal at Tottenham's new stadium yet, so they will take that very seriously. It's not a great place for them to go, so they want to break that hoodoo.
They have to go to Tottenham later in the Premier League season, so if City lose this - either 1-0 or 2-0 again - it will create a psychological issue for them.
If Tottenham win this game, then the FA Cup opens up for them. They will have beaten the team you need to beat to win the FA Cup.
This is a big game, not just for Tottenham, but for everyone else in the FA Cup.
Timo Werner could make his home debut for Spurs that day. That Man Utd game was a tough one for him to come into on his debut, he ran through a lot and missed the target a couple of times.
I thought he was a good signing for Tottenham. I actually think that if he hadn't played for Chelsea in the past, then Chelsea would have gone for him this January. It would have suited them - he's pacy and he can score a goal.
The one frustrating thing that happened for him at Chelsea is he constantly ran offside. It was amazing how many times he did that. When you're playing that quickly, you don't have to be on the last shoulder of the defender.
