Paul Merson predicts a ‘walk in the park’ for Arsenal on Saturday against struggling Newcastle.
The Magpies are the visitors to Emirates Stadium this weekend not in great form without a win in three games and third from bottom at the halfway stage.
Merson has backed the Gunners to start the new year off how they finished with a comfortable home win.
I can’t see anything but an easy Arsenal win here.
It was so important Arsenal got back to winning ways after the defeat by Southampton. That’s what champions would do, and they came through thanks to more magic from Mesut Ozil.
Newcastle have historically struggled coming up against Arsenal. Their last win stretches back to November 2010 when Andy Carroll was the hero with a first-half header.
The run of nine games without a win consists of two draws and seven defeats and Merson doesn’t see that trend changing.
It was a bad result for Newcastle at West Brom, although I did feel for goalkeeper Karl Darlow as he had done well up to the goal.
I think it will be a walk in the park for the Gunners, and Newcastle will probably look at this as damage limitation, making sure they do not get a good beating.
One omen for Steve McClaren’s side is they did flourish in north London before Christmas, beating Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 at White Hart Lane.
Former Arsenal midfielder Merson is not expecting a similar result at the other end of the seven sisters road, predicting a 3-0 win for title-chasing Arsenal.
