Paul Merson makes Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham predictions as 'messed up' claim made

Another big weekend of Premier League football awaits, with Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham all in action. Arsenal face Aston Villa in a tricky home clash on Saturday as they look to continue their pursuit of leaders Liverpool.

Meanwhile, Tottenham will look to recover from their North London derby defeat at Everton, and finally, Chelsea host Wolves in a game they need to win as they look to get back into the top four. Here we take a look at Paul Merson’s SportsKeeda predictions for all of those fixtures.

Arsenal vs Aston Villa

“This is a huge game for Arsenal. If Liverpool win like I predicted, Arsenal will be seven points behind the league leaders before this game kicks off! And that can be a huge psychological block for some players, especially since the risk of dropping points will keep running inside their heads.

“Aston Villa stopped Arsenal from winning the league title last season and that will still be in the players' minds. Villa are grinding out some results and they have enough firepower to trouble Arsenal in the form of Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins. They will fancy their chances at the Emirates because Arsenal will have a go and it will open up spaces for them.

“Arsenal have had two difficult games in the space of a few days. If they can follow up that derby win over Tottenham with a win against Villa, that will be massive. Arsenal are not out of the title race, they have very little margin for error, yes. But they are not out of it at all! I'm going to go with Arsenal here, but only just. This will be a tight game. Prediction: Arsenal 2-1 Aston Villa.”

Everton vs Tottenham

“Nothing changed with Everton the other day, I said that before didn't I? It's not like Sean Dyche left a lot of players out in the cold and David Moyes could just come in and be like, 'I'll just fine tune this guy to perform a miracle'. Tottenham are always Spursy, but I believe they will have too much for Everton in this game. Spurs will open the game up and I don't think Everton have the firepower to outscore the visitors. The hosts can only hope of keeping it tight at the back, but I'm not sure they can do that for long here.

“Ange Postecoglou's men have suffered due to their two first-choice centre backs being unavailable. If both Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero were fit to play, I wouldn't mind James Maddison starting ahead of Dejan Kulusevski. But with both of them not playing, Spurs need some steel in midfield and that's why I'd prefer Kulusevski in there. Everton will be dreading at the possibility of an open game here and that will play into Spurs' hands. Prediction: Everton 0-2 Tottenham Hotspur.”

Chelsea vs Wolves

“I'll be there to watch this game at Stamford Bridge on Monday night and I can't see anything but a win for Chelsea. Wolves have gone back to being where they were before. They did enjoy a bit of a run but that has now stopped. If Chelsea play anywhere near like how they played in the first half against Bournemouth, they will be easy winners.

“It hasn't worked out for Christopher Nkunku at Chelsea even though he's a top player. There are rumors of him leaving the club but the problem is that you can't ask for £70 million to sell him because nobody is paying that amount of money! That asking price just tells me that Chelsea don't want to get rid of him. Nkunku sort of plays in the same position as Cole Palmer, who has to start every game, so it's unlikely he has a future here.

“Chelsea also need a new centre forward. Nicolas Jackson gets on the end of a lot of chances but he doesn't take them all! Even though he does brilliant work away from the goal, he just can't score consistently and that's a problem Chelsea must look to fix. It's ideal if they can sell Nkunku and reinvest that money in a new centre-forward, but if they ask for silly money it will only derail chances of a move.

“This is a must-win game for Chelsea. I expect all their top four rivals to win this weekend and if Chelsea end up losing, they could fall down to sixth or seventh in the table. When I looked at their fixtures six weeks ago, I thought they were in the title race. But they have completely messed up these winnable games and if they drop points again, that top four berth could come under serious threat. Prediction: Chelsea 3-0 Wolves.”