Arsenal should have beaten Chelsea to Danny Drinkwater signing, says Paul Merson

Deadline day: Drinkwater joined Chelsea from Leicester after submitting a transfer request
AP
Jack Rosser @JackRosser_3 September 2017

Former Arsenal man Paul Merson has branded the current Gunners "pathetic" and says that they should have signed Chelsea’s Danny Drinkwater in order to add some fight to the side.

Last season’s FA Cup winners are in crisis just three games into the new campaign after a loss at Stoke, humiliation at Liverpool and a transfer deadline day which ended in shambles after Monaco’s Thomas Lemar snubbed a move to the Emirates as Arsene Wenger looked to replace Alexis Sanchez.

“The players look like they couldn’t have cared less [in the 4-0 loss at Anfield]” Merson wrote in his Daily Star column.

“You get the sack when your players don’t look fussed. But not at Arsenal. It’s all too nice.

“Arsenal should have bid for Danny Drinkwater rather than let him go to Chelsea. At least he will fight for you. This lot just give up.

“In my day, the dressing room after a performance like that would have been a war zone. You would have had to call the police because there would have been fights everywhere.”

A weak central midfield and a lack of leaders in the side have been earmarked as two problems that needed solving in north London over the summer, but there was no movement whilst Antonio Conte brought Drinkwater to Stamford Bridge on deadline day.

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“Arsenal’s 4-0 thrashing by Liverpool was the worst I have EVER seen under Wenger. It was shambolic, horrendous,” Merson continued.

In pictures | Chelsea transfer signings 2017-18

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“I think the players have lost all respect for him. But I think the fans are losing all respect as well.

“They are playing for Arsenal and they are turning it into a mockery. They are embarrassing the football club.

“It’s becoming one of football’s also-rans because they are a million miles from winning the league and that’s pathetic.

“I’m disgusted. It’s just an embarrassment from top to bottom. It frustrates me. And it will get worse too."