{"id":3908,"date":"2026-09-09T13:35:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T13:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/footballars.xyz\/?p=3908"},"modified":"2026-09-09T13:35:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T13:35:26","slug":"arsenal-didnt-make-x-factor-signing-like-vinicius-junior-or-julian-alvarez-to-win-champions-league-says-paul-merson-football-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/footballars.xyz\/?p=3908","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal didn&#8217;t make X factor signing like Vinicius Junior or Julian Alvarez to win Champions League, says Paul Merson | Football News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-component-name=\"ui-article-body\" data-testid=\"article-body\" data-highlight-intro=\"true\">\n<p>Arsenal&#8217;s record last year was amazing in the Champions League and they&#8217;re going to be there or thereabouts again \u2013 but I don&#8217;t think they bought that X factor signing to take them to that next level.<\/p>\n<p>They have enough to win the Premier League with their squad. I just think the forward line against the big boys, they&#8217;re missing that little ingredient.<\/p>\n<p>If they&#8217;d had a Vinicius Junior or a Julian Alvarez, that would have given them the edge to go on and win the Champions League.<\/p>\n<p>I think they might just fall short.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m a big fan of Kai Havertz. He does a lot of work and he&#8217;s what I call a good footballer. He works hard and makes the right decisions. I just think he&#8217;s not going to score 20 goals in a season. To take them to the Premier League title, there&#8217;s no doubt about it, he&#8217;s a top-drawer player.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sdc-article-widget sdc-site-video sdc-article-widget callfn\" data-account-id=\"6057984924001\" data-amp-iframe-embed=\"\" data-asset-id=\"d76b0ab7-8fc8-4068-b511-ea8959cd0b34\" data-asset-path=\"\" data-asset-version=\"\" data-autoplay=\"false\" data-auth-config=\"{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/api.condatis.sky\\\/auth\\\/video\\\/token&quot;,&quot;tokenRequired&quot;:true,&quot;fetchMethod&quot;:&quot;url&quot;,&quot;fetchOptions&quot;:{&quot;encoded&quot;:true},&quot;headers&quot;:{&quot;X-SkyGDP-Proposition&quot;:&quot;sportweb&quot;,&quot;X-SkyGDP-Territory&quot;:&quot;GB&quot;,&quot;Authorization&quot;:&quot;OGY5ZDgxZjRhNzYwNGQ3MTljMjFhMDJlOGVmODRhYzA=&quot;}}\" data-caption=\"Take a look at some of Kai Havertz's best goals in the Premier League.\" data-clip-type=\"\" data-component-name=\"sdc-site-video\" data-component-name-alias=\"ui-sitewide-video\" data-competition=\"\" data-copy-url-text=\"URL copied to clipboard\" data-fn=\"sdc-site-video\" data-id=\"id_d76b0ab7-8fc8-4068-b511-ea8959cd0b34\" data-is-live-stream=\"false\" data-lite=\"true\" data-options=\"\" data-originator-id=\"-1\" data-originator-handle=\"brightcove-sport-gb\" data-package-name=\"\" data-provider=\"brightcove\" data-player-id=\"DESF5xFjJ\" data-playsinline=\"\" data-sensitive=\"\" data-sdc-id=\"7345960\" data-sdc-video-id=\"d76b0ab7-8fc8-4068-b511-ea8959cd0b34\" data-sport-category=\"\" data-state=\"loading\" data-token-state=\"none\" data-video-ad-unit=\"videoplayer\" data-video-blacklisted-originator-ids=\"\" data-video-id=\"ref:d76b0ab7-8fc8-4068-b511-ea8959cd0b34\" data-video-type=\"\" data-auto-pause-on-not-visible=\"\" data-defer-source=\"\" tabindex=\"-1\" data-closed-captions-position=\"\" data-show-closed-captions=\"true\" data-show-pip=\"\" data-show-live-stream-scrubber=\"\" data-autoload=\"\" data-testid=\"sitewide-video\">\n<div class=\"sdc-site-video__inner\">\n<div class=\"sdc-site-video__content\" data-role=\"bridge-controller\" style=\"padding-bottom: calc(100% \/ ());\">\n<p class=\"sdc-site-video__accessibility-message\" data-role=\"accessibility-message\">Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n<p>          <span aria-hidden=\"true\" data-role=\"poster\" class=\"sdc-site-video__poster\"><br \/>\n            <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/e0.365dm.com\/26\/09\/768x432\/skysports-havertz-football_7345974.jpg?20260909115501\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/e0.365dm.com\/26\/09\/768x432\/skysports-havertz-football_7345974.jpg?20260909115501 600w,https:\/\/e0.365dm.com\/26\/09\/1600x900\/skysports-havertz-football_7345974.jpg?20260909115501\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"sdc-site-video__poster-img excluded-image\" data-testid=\"sitewide-video-poster\"\/><br \/>\n          <span class=\"sdc-site-video__loader\" data-testid=\"sitewide-video-loader\"\/><\/p>\n<p>          <\/span><\/p>\n<p>          <video id=\"id_d76b0ab7-8fc8-4068-b511-ea8959cd0b34\" data-embed=\"default\" data-application-id=\"\" class=\"video-js sdc-site-video__tag\" controls=\"\" playsinline=\"\" data-testid=\"sitewide-video-video\"\/>\n        <\/div><figcaption class=\"sdc-site-video__caption ui-media-caption\">\n<p>          <span class=\"ui-media-caption__caption-text\" data-role=\"caption-text\" data-testid=\"sitewide-video-caption\">Take a look at some of Kai Havertz&#8217;s best goals in the Premier League.<\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The other thing I look at is when Arsenal go and play against Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain, teams like that in the Champions League latter stages, the centre-halves and the full-backs, getting up in the morning and going to their team talk and saying to one of the other players, &#8220;Didn&#8217;t sleep very well last night, a bit worried about who I&#8217;m playing against&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t see that for Arsenal. Maybe Bukayo Saka for the left-back, but they haven&#8217;t got that X factor.<\/p>\n<p>I think that&#8217;s what they found out in the final last year. Arsenal had no pace getting forward, and PSG just squeezed the game up and didn&#8217;t let Arsenal out of their half. That would be the worry.<\/p>\n<p>They had been so close to winning the Premier League and then they got over the line, I wouldn&#8217;t say comfortably, but they&#8217;ve kicked on again.<\/p>\n<p>They&#8217;ve got some good players. I think they could have gone on again and bought a real, real superstar. But their squad is immense. It&#8217;s so solid.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sdc-article-widget sdc-site-video sdc-article-widget callfn\" data-account-id=\"6057984924001\" data-amp-iframe-embed=\"\" data-asset-id=\"45d2142f-03e7-4813-a3e4-d0b43b514084\" data-asset-path=\"\" data-asset-version=\"\" data-autoplay=\"false\" data-auth-config=\"{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/api.condatis.sky\\\/auth\\\/video\\\/token&quot;,&quot;tokenRequired&quot;:true,&quot;fetchMethod&quot;:&quot;url&quot;,&quot;fetchOptions&quot;:{&quot;encoded&quot;:true},&quot;headers&quot;:{&quot;X-SkyGDP-Proposition&quot;:&quot;sportweb&quot;,&quot;X-SkyGDP-Territory&quot;:&quot;GB&quot;,&quot;Authorization&quot;:&quot;OGY5ZDgxZjRhNzYwNGQ3MTljMjFhMDJlOGVmODRhYzA=&quot;}}\" data-caption=\"Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta says they are prepared for the start of their Champions League campaign against Napoli.\" data-clip-type=\"\" data-component-name=\"sdc-site-video\" data-component-name-alias=\"ui-sitewide-video\" data-competition=\"\" data-copy-url-text=\"URL copied to clipboard\" data-fn=\"sdc-site-video\" data-id=\"id_45d2142f-03e7-4813-a3e4-d0b43b514084\" data-is-live-stream=\"false\" data-lite=\"true\" data-options=\"\" data-originator-id=\"-1\" data-originator-handle=\"brightcove-sport-gb\" data-package-name=\"\" data-provider=\"brightcove\" data-player-id=\"DESF5xFjJ\" data-playsinline=\"\" data-sensitive=\"\" data-sdc-id=\"7345705\" data-sdc-video-id=\"45d2142f-03e7-4813-a3e4-d0b43b514084\" data-sport-category=\"\" data-state=\"loading\" data-token-state=\"none\" data-video-ad-unit=\"videoplayer\" data-video-blacklisted-originator-ids=\"\" data-video-id=\"ref:45d2142f-03e7-4813-a3e4-d0b43b514084\" data-video-type=\"\" data-auto-pause-on-not-visible=\"\" data-defer-source=\"\" tabindex=\"-1\" data-closed-captions-position=\"\" data-show-closed-captions=\"true\" data-show-pip=\"\" data-show-live-stream-scrubber=\"\" data-autoload=\"\" data-testid=\"sitewide-video\">\n<div class=\"sdc-site-video__inner\">\n<div class=\"sdc-site-video__content\" data-role=\"bridge-controller\" style=\"padding-bottom: calc(100% \/ ());\">\n<p class=\"sdc-site-video__accessibility-message\" data-role=\"accessibility-message\">Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player<\/p>\n<p>          <span aria-hidden=\"true\" data-role=\"poster\" class=\"sdc-site-video__poster\"><br \/>\n            <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/e0.365dm.com\/26\/09\/768x432\/skysports-football-arteta_7345708.jpg?20260909075614\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/e0.365dm.com\/26\/09\/768x432\/skysports-football-arteta_7345708.jpg?20260909075614 600w,https:\/\/e0.365dm.com\/26\/09\/1600x900\/skysports-football-arteta_7345708.jpg?20260909075614\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"sdc-site-video__poster-img excluded-image\" data-testid=\"sitewide-video-poster\"\/><br \/>\n          <span class=\"sdc-site-video__loader\" data-testid=\"sitewide-video-loader\"\/><\/p>\n<p>          <\/span><\/p>\n<p>          <video id=\"id_45d2142f-03e7-4813-a3e4-d0b43b514084\" data-embed=\"default\" data-application-id=\"\" class=\"video-js sdc-site-video__tag\" controls=\"\" playsinline=\"\" data-testid=\"sitewide-video-video\"\/>\n        <\/div><figcaption class=\"sdc-site-video__caption ui-media-caption\">\n<p>          <span class=\"ui-media-caption__caption-text\" data-role=\"caption-text\" data-testid=\"sitewide-video-caption\">Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta says they are prepared for the start of their Champions League campaign against Napoli.<\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>It&#8217;s so hard just to get a shot off against them, let alone score a goal. Chelsea went there with one of the best, if not the best, front threes in the Premier League.<\/p>\n<p>They scored after 77 seconds, but I can&#8217;t remember them ever looking like they&#8217;d score another goal after that. So that just shows you how dominant Arsenal are at the moment.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s important you start well in the Champions League. When the tournament changed to this format, teams struggled. They had eight games, they thought they&#8217;d win enough and get through. Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain struggled at times to get through.<\/p>\n<p>And then last year, everybody tried to get their wins under their belt very, very quickly. This is an important game tonight. They&#8217;ll want to keep the momentum going.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;d said to me a year or two ago, Napoli away, I&#8217;d have said it was a hard game. But Chelsea went there in Europe and beat them and they hadn&#8217;t been beaten for a long time at home. So they&#8217;re beatable and I don&#8217;t expect Arsenal to lose.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Follow Napoli vs Arsenal on the Sky Sports app with our dedicated match commentary from 6.30pm on Wednesday.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.skysports.com\/football\/news\/11095\/13583541\/arsenal-didnt-make-x-factor-signing-like-vinicius-junior-or-julian-alvarez-to-win-champions-league-says-paul-merson\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arsenal&#8217;s record last year was amazing in the Champions League and they&#8217;re going to be&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballars.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballars.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballars.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballars.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballars.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/footballars.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballars.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballars.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballars.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballars.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}