Paul Merson wrote off Arsenal’s title chances after Saturday’s defeat to West Ham (Image: SKY SPORTS)
hero believes there is ‘absolutely no chance’ that his former side will catch up with in this season’s Premier League title race.
Their fading hopes of domestic glory were dealt a hammer blow on Saturday as West Ham snatched all three points thanks to Jarrod Bowen’s first-half header.
struggled to get going and looked toothless in attack, with Mikel Merino leading the line out of necessity in the absence of and Gabriel Jesus.
Ethan Nwaneri and Leandro Trossard also failed to have the desired impact out wide as the Hammers held firm to claim a surprise victory.
The result means will go 11 points clear of in the Premier League table if they beat away from home on Sunday. They will, however, have played one game more.
The north Londoners missed a golden chance to narrow the gap to league leaders Liverpool (Image: GETTY)
Speaking on after the final whistle, Merson threw in the towel when asked if can still catch their Merseyside rivals between now and the end of the season.
“One million per cent, there’s no way can catch ,” he said. “They’ve got no forward! The young 17-year-old [Nwaneri] who’s going to have a bright future, an amazing player, he struggled.
“When it gets like that, it’s hard for a 17-year-old to come back. Trossard is a bit-part player in my opinion. I think if everyone is fit, he is the one you want coming on with 30 minutes to go if you need him. I think he is that kind of player.
“He’s got to play every game now. Then they’ve got no centre-forward. There’s absolutely no chance, even if get beat 7-0 tomorrow, they still can’t win the league. I’ve seen enough today to know they are going to struggle until the end of the season.”
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It seems will need a miracle to stand any chance of beating to the Premier League title, having missed their chance to move within five points of the Reds against West Ham.
suggested in his post-match interview that he was to blame for failing to maintain the required standards, saying: “It was nowhere near the level that we need to win the Premier League.
“I think we have to look in the mirror of ourselves of what we can do better, what we have done and the will and the desire and the way we run and the way we want it, zero question about that. But at that level, this is not enough.
“You have to deliver and it has to be with a lot of quality to break a really good team down, to win many more games than we have done and to put actions that can end up in really threatening moments to win the games and today we haven’t done that.”