Paul Merson has now claimed that Liverpool have the same problem as Arsenal following their defeat against Crystal Palace today.
Jurgen Klopp watched his side waste several excellent chances against Palace this afternoon, remarkably not managing to even take one.
The likes of Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota simply couldn’t put away any of their chances that they would finish with ease on another day.
And as a result, Liverpool failed to take their place at the top of the table, falling to Oliver Glasner’s second win since becoming Palace boss.
And whilst this defeat has severe consequences in terms of Klopp’s pursuit of a league title in his final season at the club, it will also do very little for confidence levels heading into the second leg against Atalanta.
If some Liverpool fans may feel the league title is now already beyond them, when any winning team will need to be near on perfect, then a historic comeback is needed more than ever on Thursday.
Paul Merson thinks Liverpool now have the same goal scoring issue as Arsenal
Speaking before Arsenal’s game kicked off following Liverpool’s win, Paul Merson thought the two clubs now shared the same issue.
Speaking on Sky Sports’ post match coverage, Merson thought neither Liverpool or Arsenal could match Manchester City in terms of having a goalscorer like Erling Haaland.
He explained: “They can’t keep falling behind, what Jamie said before with 23 games, you can’t keep on doing that.
“Salah here, it hits his toe, I mean any other time you just roll that into the corner, it’s bad finishing you know and it looks like it’s going to come back to bite them.
“They aint got a natural goalscorer, that’s Arsenal’s problem as well, I hope that’s not going to be Arsenal’s thing that comes back to bite them in the end.
“You know Man City have got a natural goalscorer and they’re top of the league at the moment.
“So I’m disappointed for Liverpool, I feel sorry for them.”
Arsenal fans may agree after Aston Villa defeat
Of course, following Arsenal’s defeat against Aston Villa today, it’s hard to disagree with those words.
Mikel Arteta’s side have been working well to disprove the idea that you need one player who can score 20 or 30 goals individually in a season.
However, against Unai Emery’s impressive Villa team, Arsenal came unstuck with Gabriel Jesus as their number nine.
It was an incredibly frustrating afternoon for the Gunners, and one that leaves Man City in pole position to win another league title.
And given both Arsenal and Liverpool lost, Martin Keown’s Premier League prediction before games kicked off today has now held up pretty well.
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