{"id":6176,"date":"2026-04-09T15:50:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T15:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?p=6176"},"modified":"2026-04-09T15:50:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T15:50:16","slug":"paul-merson-backs-chelsea-to-hand-arsenal-the-title-ahead-of-man-city-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?p=6176","title":{"rendered":"Paul Merson backs Chelsea to hand Arsenal the title ahead of Man City | Football"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"646\" height=\"369\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/paul-merson-67c2.png?w=646\" class=\"article-image wp-image-27913973\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"sync\"\/>\t<\/div><figcaption>Paul Merson believes the title race will be over this weekend (Picture: Sky Sports)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Paul Merson believes Arsenal will have \u2018one trophy in the bag\u2019 following this weekend\u2019s Premier League fixtures.<\/p>\n<p>The Gunners, chasing a first league title in 22 years, will move 12 points clear at the top of the table if they beat Bournemouth at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Mikel Arteta\u2019s side suffered back-to-back defeats for the first time this season either side of the international break, first losing to title rivals Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final and then crashing out of the FA Cup against Championship side Southampton.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal produced another somewhat underwhelming display against Sporting in the Champions League on Tuesday night but ground out a 1-0 win thanks to Kai Havertz\u2019s injury-time goal.<\/p>\n<p>Merson believes his former club will return to top form by dispatching Bournemouth at the weekend and believes the Premier League title race will then be \u2018over\u2019 as he backed Chelsea to frustrate Man City.<\/p>\n<p>Pep Guardiola\u2019s title-chasing City outclassed Arsenal in a Wembley final last month before thrashing reigning Premier League champions Liverpool 4-0 in the FA Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Those results have caused concern among Arsenal fans but Merson expects Manchester City\u2019s ominous form to end at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"594\" height=\"408\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2269711737_6a4d4e.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=594\" class=\"article-image wp-image-27914162\" alt=\"Sporting v Arsenal - UEFA Champions League\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>\t<\/div><figcaption>Mikel Arteta is closing in on the Premier League title (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u2018Arsenal\u00a0are on a bit of a wobble, aren\u2019t they? I told you last week that the FA Cup game was a banana skin and they were knocked out by Southampton,\u2019 Merson told Sportskeeda.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Bournemouth are on a decent unbeaten run. But the problem is they just can\u2019t win games.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I feel like people are getting a bit carried away by hyping them up for being unbeaten. If you don\u2019t win enough games, it makes no sense in my opinion.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"594\" height=\"396\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2266873805.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=594\" class=\"article-image wp-image-27914165\" alt=\"Manchester City FC v Real Madrid CF - UEFA Champions League 2025\/26 Round of 16 Second Leg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>\t<\/div><figcaption>Pep Guardiola\u2019s Man City are chasing Arsenal (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u2018I personally think the\u00a0Premier League\u00a0title race will be over this weekend. I\u2019m backing Arsenal to win, which means they go 12 points clear of Manchester City. I don\u2019t believe City will beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I\u2019m predicting a comfortable win for Mikel Arteta\u2019s team. Arsenal will be relieved they at least have one trophy in the bag after this weekend.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea suffered back-to-back Premier League defeats either side of an embarrassing Champions League exit at the hands of PSG before the international break.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"594\" height=\"376\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2269247322_0c51f6.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=594\" class=\"article-image wp-image-27914169\" alt=\"Chelsea v Port Vale - Emirates FA Cup Quarter Final\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>\t<\/div><figcaption>Liam Rosenior is already under pressure at Chelsea (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Liam Rosenior\u2019s side returned to winning ways at the weekend, beating League One basement boys Port Vale 7-0 in the FA Cup.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Chelsea are on a poor run of form at the moment and this is a tough game, but I don\u2019t expect them to get beat here,\u2019 Merson added.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Manchester City\u00a0are drawing too many games in the league and Chelsea away is not an easy fixture for them.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018People are talking a lot about Arsenal bottling the league, but over the last five league games, they have won two points more than City!<\/p>\n<p>\u2018So I don\u2019t think Arsenal are doing that bad, especially with City also dropping points.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018The next two games will define Liam Rosenior\u2019s future at Chelsea and I expect Chelsea to give City strong competition in this game. I\u2019m going for a draw here, which essentially means Arsenal to win the league.\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>For more stories like this,\u00a0check our sport page<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on <meta charset=\"utf-8\"\/><br \/>\n<strong>Facebook,\u00a0<\/strong><a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Metro_Sport\">Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Instagram<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"\/><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Alan Shearer sends Anthony Gordon transfer message to Arsenal<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"\/><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Tottenham suffer new Mohammed Kudus injury setback<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"\/><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Enzo Fernandez\u2019s agent sends message to Chelsea over Real Madrid transfer<\/span><\/p>\n<section id=\"share-buttons-bottom\" class=\"share-buttons share-buttons-bottom\">\n\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Comment now<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-comment\" href=\"#social-comment\"\/><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-comments__label\">Comments<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-preferred-source\" href=\"#social-preferred-source\"\/><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-preferred-source__label\">Add as preferred source<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/section>\n<div class=\"newsletter-end-card accent--sport\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-end-card__inner\">\n<h4>Football Newsletter \u2013 In The Mixer<\/h4>\n<p>Punchy analysis, transfer talk and more from Metro&#8217;s football experts, sent straight to your inbox every week.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/> Paul Merson backs Chelsea to hand Arsenal the title ahead of Man City | Football<br \/>\n<br \/>#Paul #Merson #backs #Chelsea #hand #Arsenal #title #ahead #Man #City #Football<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Paul Merson believes the title race will be over this weekend (Picture: Sky Sports) Paul&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[585,361,1706,363,992,317,2341,230,1030,570,1033],"class_list":["post-6176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-ahead","tag-arsenal","tag-backs","tag-chelsea","tag-city","tag-football","tag-hand","tag-man","tag-merson","tag-paul","tag-title"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/paul-merson-67c2_1775746284.png",1200,630,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/paul-merson-67c2_1775746284-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/paul-merson-67c2_1775746284-300x158.png",300,158,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/paul-merson-67c2_1775746284-768x403.png",640,336,true],"large":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/paul-merson-67c2_1775746284-1024x538.png",640,336,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/paul-merson-67c2_1775746284.png",1200,630,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/paul-merson-67c2_1775746284.png",1200,630,false],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/paul-merson-67c2_1775746284-1024x538.png",1024,538,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/paul-merson-67c2_1775746284-540x340.png",540,340,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?author=1"},"category_info":"<a 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