Tottenham fans could CHEER if Man City score against them in mid-week, Paul Merson jokes – as Spurs hope for a late Arsenal title stumble ahead of final-day showdown

Paul Merson has joked that Tottenham supporters will celebrate should Manchester City score against them as they hope for a late Arsenal title collapse.

Mikel Arteta‘s side beat Manchester United 1-0 at Old Trafford to move one point clear of City, who next travel to Spurs in a crucial showdown on Tuesday night. 

Champions City remain in control of their own destiny in the title race despite being usurped on Sunday. They have two fixtures left – against Spurs and West Ham – while Arsenal will play just once more when they welcome Everton to the Emirates.

Regardless of City’s result in North London, the Premier League winner will only be crowned next Sunday in a dramatic conclusion to a two-way dogfight. 

But Merson, who played for Arsenal between 1985 and 1997, has comically predicted that the Spurs faithful may well find themselves cheering on City against their team.

Arsenal beat Manchester United to move back to the top of the Premier League table

City still hold the advantage and will win the title if they beat Tottenham and West Ham

He also believes that Arsenal must bank on Liverpool beating Aston Villa on Monday to leave Tottenham’s faint top-four hopes intact when they lock horns with City.

‘If Villa get beat tomorrow, Tottenham are still in the race [for the Champions League],’ Merson said during Sky Sports’ live coverage.

‘So they need to get something [against City], if Villa get beat. 

‘Every Arsenal fan needs Villa to get beat tomorrow. If Liverpool can get a result, Tottenham have to stay hungry on Tuesday.

‘If Liverpool win by two or three goals, all of a sudden [Villa] play Crystal Palace. No one wants to play Palace at the moment and [Spurs] go to Sheffield United.

Paul Merson has joked Tottenham fans will cheer any City goals against them in mid-week

Spurs may well play City with no Champions League football on the line depending on results

‘If Villa get a result, there’s no way. They won’t be playing for anything. I’ve played in those games… they don’t want Arsenal to win the league whatever happens.

‘It will get to a stage where Tottenham fans will cheer if Man City score, they will. The one thing they don’t want is for Arsenal to win the league – the one thing.

‘But they have no choice, if Villa get beat, than to stay hungry.’

Arsenal were unconvincing against a rag-tag United but sealed all three points after Leandro Trossard tucked home the only goal of the game after 20 minutes.

Sluggish defending from the under-fire Casemiro played Kai Havertz onside and the forward fired in a low cross for Trossard to meet at the foot of the front post. 

Leandro Trossard tucked home at the near post after sluggish defending from United

Mikel Arteta praised Arsenal’s performance but admitted they made mistakes after scoring

‘We needed a result today in a really difficult place,’ Arteta told the BBC. 

‘Our history was not in favour of a result today, there was so much at stake and we’re happy with the result. We started the game really well and were dominant. 

‘We scored the goal and I think the goal led to slightly bad things because we started to play too safe, too sideways, too backwards with not enough structure.

‘We started to give the ball away in good areas and that is a danger against them. But we defended well and didn’t concede too much.’