{"id":9004,"date":"2025-02-20T15:16:50","date_gmt":"2025-02-20T16:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/preforeclosurefortunes.com\/?p=9004"},"modified":"2025-02-21T19:09:18","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T19:09:18","slug":"raheem-sterling-or-mikel-merino-paul-merson-makes-prediction-for-arsenals-clash-with-west-ham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/preforeclosurefortunes.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/20\/raheem-sterling-or-mikel-merino-paul-merson-makes-prediction-for-arsenals-clash-with-west-ham\/","title":{"rendered":"Raheem Sterling or Mikel Merino? Paul Merson makes prediction for Arsenal\u2019s clash with West Ham"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Arsenal will likely continue with Raheem Sterling in attack against West Ham, says Paul Merson (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Paul Merson<\/a> expects Mikel Arteta<\/a> to stick with Raheem Sterling<\/a> in his starting XI for Arsenal’s ‘must-win’ match against West Ham<\/a>, despite the forward’s ineffective performance at Leicester<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A season-ending injury to Kai Havertz<\/a> forced Mikel Arteta to field a new-look attack versus the Foxes, prompting some talk of Merino deputising in place of the German as a false nine.<\/p>\n

Arteta instead opted to put his faith in a frontline of Leandro Trossard, Ethan Nwaneri and Sterling, who were frustrated by Premier League strugglers Leicester for the most part at the King Power Stadium.<\/p>\n

Sterling’s display was especially disappointing <\/a>and the England international was taken off midway through the second half, with Merino introduced up front for the final 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

The substitution proved a masterstroke as Merino headed home a pinpoint cross from man-of-the-match Nwaneri<\/a> to break the deadlock around ten minutes later, before doubling Arsenal’s advantage with a superb first-time finish at the death.<\/p>\n

Merino’s late heroics<\/a> have inevitably led to calls for the Spaniard to be given the nod from the start for this weekend’s London derby – but Merson believes Arteta will resist the urge to make changes up top at the Emirates.<\/p>\n

‘Arsenal have an advantage this week since they are playing before Liverpool. If they beat West Ham, they close the gap at the top to just five points,’ ex-Arsenal and England midfielder Merson said in his Sportskeeda<\/a> column.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"Leicester\t<\/div>
Merino came on to score two crucial late goals in a 2-0 win over Leicester (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\n\t\t\"Arsenal\t<\/div>
Arteta has some big decisions to make ahead of this weekend’s London derby (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

‘If Liverpool lose to City on Sunday, the title race is wide open! This will still be a hard game for Arsenal, though.<\/p>\n

I thought Arsenal struggled against Leicester until Mikel Merino scored two very good late goals. <\/p>\n

‘West Ham were decent against Chelsea, I liked how they played even though they lost.’<\/p>\n

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The football wasn’t free-flowing at all. I was gutted for Raheem Sterling because for some reason he just can’t seem to get going at Arsenal.<\/p>\n<p>‘Despite his goal in the last game, I think Merino will be left on the bench here. I expect Mikel Arteta to use the same front three he used against Leicester.<\/p>\n<p>‘If it doesn’t work out he can always bring Merino on and hope for the same result.’<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"646\" height=\"431\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"article-image wp-image-22596982 lazyload\" alt=\"Manchester City FC v Arsenal FC - Premier League\" loading=\"lazy\" data-src=\"https:\/\/preforeclosurefortunes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/GettyImages-2173183964_4ddbcb.jpg\">\t<\/div><figcaption>Merson was ‘gutted’ for Sterling after another uninspiring performance (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Though wary of the threat West Ham pose on the counter-attack, Merson predicts second-placed Arsenal will come away from Saturday’s all-London affair with a 1-0 victory. <\/p>\n<p>‘West Ham will come out and frustrate Arsenal in this game, plus the Hammers have the firepower in the form of players who can pick you off,’ he continued. <\/p>\n<p>‘They are also a better team in games where they are forced to rely on counter-attack. <\/p>\n<p>‘Arsenal have a tricky run of fixtures after this game. This is a must-win clash and they must look at one game at a time rather than getting too ahead of themselves. This title is still well out of their hands, though.’<\/p>\n<p>Arteta was quick to defend Sterling’s showing against Leicester, instead focusing on the team’s shortcomings as a whole which he felt made life ‘very difficult’ for his attack.<\/p>\n<p>Asked whether the Chelsea loanee may need more game-time to build up his confidence, Arteta responded: ‘Yeah… and, as well, I think from everybody, to step up their game.<\/p>\n<p>‘In the first half, especially in the first 20 to 25 minutes, we weren’t at our standards and it’s very difficult for our front players.’<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>For more stories like this,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/sport\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/sport\/\">check our sport page<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sportmetro\">Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Metro_Sport\">Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/metrosportuk\/\">Instagram<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arsenal will likely continue with Raheem Sterling in attack against West Ham, says Paul Merson (Picture: Getty) Paul Merson expects Mikel Arteta to stick with Raheem Sterling in his starting XI for Arsenal’s ‘must-win’ match against West Ham, despite the forward’s ineffective performance at Leicester. A season-ending injury to Kai Havertz forced Mikel Arteta to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/preforeclosurefortunes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9004"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/preforeclosurefortunes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/preforeclosurefortunes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preforeclosurefortunes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preforeclosurefortunes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9004"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/preforeclosurefortunes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9011,"href":"https:\/\/preforeclosurefortunes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9004\/revisions\/9011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preforeclosurefortunes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/preforeclosurefortunes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preforeclosurefortunes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preforeclosurefortunes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}