Merson Says: Worrying times for Arsenal, but top four still achievable

In his latest column, Paul Merson says these are worrying times for Arsenal but a top-four finish is still achievable and warns they cannot afford to lose at Chelsea on Wednesday, live on Sky Sports.

Arsenal were in pole position for Champions League football until suffering three back-to-back defeats to Crystal Palace, Brighton and Southampton which has left them three points off north London rivals Tottenham in fourth.

To make matters worse, the lack of depth at manager Mikel Arteta's disposal has been laid bare by injuries to Kieran Tierney, Thomas Partey and Takehiro Tomiyasu, with Alexandre Lacazette now missing with Covid.

But Merson feels there is a glimmer of hope for Arsenal ahead of what he calls a "make-or-break week" with games against Chelsea and Manchester United - the first of which is live on Sky Sports on Wednesday.

The problem with Arsenal's recent losing run is not the defeats. It's the teams they've been beaten by that's the issue.

Crystal Palace, Brighton and Southampton - no disrespect to those three teams - but Arsenal should be beating them if they want that top-four finish. Palace was a hard game, the way it fell, and Brighton have had two great results, but they have played these teams at the right time. They played Brighton when they couldn't win a game and also Southampton after a 6-0 thrashing.

That's worrying for Arsenal.

One positive is the way they played against Southampton. They did alright.

Fraser Forster just had one of those games for Southampton and for Arsenal, that wasn't the case against Palace and Brighton. It wasn't good enough from Arsenal.

But against Southampton, they should have got something from the game.

Arsenal are still in the top-four race.

This isn't a big game for