Sky Sports presenter Jeff Stelling fired back at Paul Merson in defence of Tottenham after the pundit claimed Arsenal were a bigger club.
Merson was commenting on Spurs’ lack of business in recent times due to them having a new stadium, and pointed out they must have to sell players due to related costs from that endeavour as their London rivals had to when going through a similar process.
“Arsenal had to sell players and Tottenham are not as big as Arsenal y’know what I mean so how can they not have to sell players?” said Merson on Sky Sports Soccer Saturday (Sky Sports News, January 26th, 12:48).
“I think that’s where the manager knows this and is just having a little dig without…”
Stelling then interrupted Merson after his Tottenham-Arsenal comparison claim to fire back at the pundit over directly stating his former side were the bigger club.
“Just like you’re having a little dig by saying Tottenham are not as big as Arsenal,” replied the presenter.
“I don’t think they are at this moment, in time who knows, if they can start winning stuff then they will over take Arsenal but…” said Merson.
Before Stelling pointed out that Tottenham are regularly in the Champions League now whereas Arsenal are not and Merson questioned what he meant by regularly as it’d only been the last two years where as the Gunners were consistently in the tournaments for several more years.
The two Sky Sports personality then briefly commented whether history should be brought into it before Stelling admitted he just felt the need to stand up for Spurs fans, this promoted Merson to share he did make the claim with doubts in his mind.
“I had to pause before I said it wasn’t as if I would have said it over the years so y’know what I mean, y’know,” said Merson (12:53) before moving on.
OPINION
It’s very bold to state without hesitancy that Arsenal are bigger than Tottenham but Spurs fans probably would expect Merson to hold that opinion regardless of what was currently going on with both clubs. However even the pundit had to eventually hold his hands up and share he did have to pause slightly as it was quite a bold claim to make, and Spurs fans will no doubt be smirking at that. Tottenham supporters will also appreciate that Stelling wasn’t going to let the remark go under the radar as he highlighted it was a clear dig by interrupting Merson. The Tottenham-Arsenal rivalry is as strong as ever this season, yet if you had to give the advantage from a neutral perspective to one of the sides as it stood, the league table doesn’t lie. Mauricio Pochettino’s side currently sit six points and two positions higher in the table than the Gunners and if that is a similar case come the end of season, Merson’s claim will look even more foolish with time.