'Club must spend money on players, even if Arsene Wenger doesn't want to'
Thursday 23 October 2014 16:32, UK
Paul Merson says Arsene Wenger has been 'covering over' poor Arsenal performances to fans and insists the club are a 'million years' from being good enough.
Arsenal scored twice in the final two minutes on Wednesday night to come from behind and beat Anderlecht 2-1 in the Champions League, but Sky Sports expert Merson slammed the last-gasp victory as the 'luckiest I've seen in a long time’.
Kieran Gibbs (89) and substitute Lukas Podolski (91) ensured Wenger's blushes were spared on his 65th birthday after the Belgian side had dominated much the match, and Merson reckons the Gunners would have been thrashed had the opposition been better.
"I’ve seen some lucky teams in my time but that is the luckiest I’ve seen for a long, long time," said the former Arsenal midfielder. "That was as bad as it got. I thought Dortmund was bad, but that was really bad.
"This is Arsenal Football Club - you can’t go to Anderlecht and put in a performance like that. When they get into the later stages of this competition, they’ll just be blown away.
"Arsenal aren’t going to be good enough for anything this season if that’s supposed to be good enough.
"[Anderlecht] had four or five clear-cut chances and, let’s be honest, a good team would have scored them. If that’s Real Madrid it’s 6-0 or 7-0.
"I think sometimes Arsene covers over the fans. Sooner or later they’re going to go: ‘Wait a minute, what am I watching here? You’re telling me we did well by beating Anderlecht 2-1?’
"I have feelings for Arsenal and that’s not good enough - nicking 2-1 wins is fair enough, but I’m looking at the all-round picture over the whole season and no way will that be good enough in a million years."
Arsenal now have a five-point cushion over their nearest challengers, Anderlecht, for a qualification place from Group D, but Merson says the stumbling Londoners must buy players and not let Arsene Wenger take responsibility for how the club spends money.
"Arsenal have got to improve across the whole season," he added.
"The Man City game at home, when they drew 2-2, was the only good thing they’ve done – they’ve really stuttered along this season and the all-round picture hasn’t been good enough.
"I’ve worked under Arsene and I think he’s top drawer. If he left Arsenal tomorrow, every football team in the world would want him in charge.
“I don’t see that the problem is the manager, I just think they need to start spending money.
"It’s like Arsene feels it’s his money and his responsibility to look after the club. No, spend the money, go out and get a holding midfield player and a world-class centre-half.
“Then Arsenal will be three-quarters of the way there to being a very, very good football team."