Arsenal are Premier League favourites ‘because of Arteta’
Rooney said this week that Premier League bosses Arsenal will likely look to replace Arteta if they fail to win the title.
“The team is pretty good now and I think they’ve had the experiences that brought them together, but I think they’re ready for this,” he said.
“If they don’t win now you’ll probably see a change of manager.”
Arsenal in the Premier League 2025/26: key stats
- Only one goal conceded in open play
- Best discipline in the Premier League: nine yellow cards, no red
- Average ownership of 58.3%; only Liverpool and Chelsea have more
- Most touches in the offensive penalty area (301)
There is debate over whether Arsenal should replace Arteta with a winner confirmed if the Gunners fail to win a major trophy this season.
Clearly an elite manager in rebuilding, there will be uncomfortable conversations about his ability to win the biggest prizes and produce tangible evidence of the club’s incredible rise under his leadership.
Rooney’s comments were raised with Arsenal hero Merson, and when asked if the former Manchester United striker was right, he stressed the importance of context.
“It all depends how it goes, right?” Merson said Sky Sports News.
“I mean, you know, they go for like 90 points, and then they get beat, and they got 90 points, and then you say, ‘Well, what can you do, really?’
“You know, in the Champions League you can get to the final, to the semi-final, to the goalkeeper coming out, to someone going around and the referee gives the sending off. There are ways to lose. There are ways to lose titles and matches.
“People forget that five years ago Arsenal were just a runner. They came in at the start of the season, had no chance of winning in the league and they had to sweat to get into the top four to get the Champions League. And they had to sweat on that.
“They are huge players in the Premier League, and that’s thanks to Mikel Arteta.
“What he did there was he built a team and he worked with everyone who came in as athletic director, and they built a team very quietly. They have two players at every position.”
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FC on set piece? Who cares?
For some reason, the fact that Arsenal are strong at set pieces has become a stick to beat them with.
People think they rely on them too much, but it’s more of a way to break up teams that park the bus in open play, Merson says.
“I don’t understand,” he said. “They score a lot from set pieces, but in every game they have played this season, even at Liverpool, I could be wrong with a Liverpool game, they have dominated possession. It’s not like they are playing with 33/35% possession, week after week, and they score a goal from set pieces. They are dominating the game.
“They’re probably not breaking teams down as much as everyone is sitting ten behind the ball against Arsenal. So if they can’t break them down, they still have that key piece in the armoury.
“They dominate games. I haven’t seen anyone give Arsenal the lead yet this season, and they are dominant. And the reason is that the teams are ten behind the ball, and that’s why they haven’t scored many goals from open play yet.”
Arsenal are a defensive demon and that makes them PL title favorites
Arsenal being so strong defensively has somehow become a negative (or boring) thing. And somehow Arteta being compared to three-time Premier League winner Jose Mourinho is now a bad thing too.
If Arsenal continue to keep clean sheets and limit scoring opportunities, they will win the league at a gallop. That’s really all that matters, not what Liverpool fans think about X.
“As soon as it gets one to zero, the game is over,” Merson continued.
“I watched Atletico Madrid when they lost 1-0 last week in the Champions League, literally you could see him saying ‘Game over’.
“It was exactly the same when I was playing, I think it was the 1990/91 season, where the ‘one to nil for Arsenal’ happened, as soon as we scored and celebrated, we go back and you see the faces of the other team. They knew they were beaten, they knew we can’t win now. That’s it. Either we’ll draw the worst outcome, and that’s how it is.
“Arsenal are relentless. They are a machine, an oiled machine, with some incredible individual players in this team as well, which makes it a terrible cocktail for everyone.”