£25m Arsenal player claimed to be totally blameless for their defeat to West Ham

Add as preferred source on Google

Arsenal lost ground in the title race over the weekend as they lost to West Ham United while Liverpool beat Manchester City.

Alan Shearer reckons the title race is over, and the reality is that it would take a minor miracle for Arsenal to win the league from here.

Of course, Arsenal shouldn’t be losing at home to West Ham, and the inquest as to how this result came about has begun – Martin Odegaard has been criticised particularly after this match.

Speaking on the BBC Radio Five Live Football Daily Podcast, Clinton Morrison has been discussing this game, and he says that there’s one Arsenal player you simply can’t blame for this result.

• READ MORE: Ben Foster says Arsenal should’ve actually signed one of Declan Rice’s best friends as their striker in January

Mikel Merino not to blame for West Ham defeat

Morrison spoke about Arsenal’s loss to West Ham, and he absconded Mikel Merino for any blame.

Merino had to play up front in this game due to Arsenal’s injury crisis.

Merino earned praise last week for his performance against Leicester, but the £25m man couldn’t repeat the trick here.

“I looked at, watched a bit of the West Ham Arsenal game, they were flat, they didn’t create anything. They’re playing Merino as a false number nine, just because he scored two goals against Leicester City,” Morrison said,

“That’s totally different to a West Ham team that was solid and played a back five and were hard to beat. It was always going to be difficult. And that’s not criticism on Merino, because he’s doing a lot of…

“Well, it’s not his fault. He’s not a striker,” The co-host said.

“Exactly. He’s just done a job at Leicester. It’s definitely not his fault,” Morrison said.

“So yeah, disappointing from Arsenal, but Liverpool were the real deal. And everyone was like against Aston Villa and that. Oh, they didn’t look at the races.

“Well, they definitely looked at the races there. And you know what? The thing I like about Liverpool, Arne Slot can change formation.”

Arsenal’s upcoming fixtures analysed

Arsenal dropped points to West Ham this weekend, and if they are to reel Liverpool in now, they will have to be almost perfect until the end of the season.

Frustratingly though, Arsenal’s fixture list doesn’t get any easier from here.

Nottingham Forest remain in the Champions League hunt, so this midweek clash won’t be easy.

Meanwhile, Chelsea are in poor form right now, but they’re still a top side who, historically, have turned up for these big London derby games.

As for Arsenal’s trip to Old Trafford, Manchester United are in awful form as of late, but you can never take a game against the Red Devils for granted, while Arsenal have dropped points in each of their last three games against Fulham too.

A trip to Goodison Park against a resurgent Everton follows, and that won’t be an easy match either.

Arsenal’s next five games aren’t easy, and the title race could be well and truly done within the next few weeks if the Gunners don’t improve.