Paul Merson on Chelsea: The Champions League should be the Blues’ target next season | Football News

In his latest column, Paul Merson explains why Chelsea should return to the Champions League next season…

Merse also discusses why West Ham may regret David Moyes’ departure, his concerns over Tottenham’s lack of a Plan B under Ange Postecoglou, and sympathizes with Arsenal, who he believes will lose out in the title race , despite having done “nothing wrong”.

Champions League should be a target for Chelsea next season

Chelsea haven’t been consistent enough. They’ve been good in the cups – that’s what sometimes happens when you’re a young team.

They are doing well at the moment, fair play, and they are right in the race for Europe. For me, they have to get in – they got to a final, a semi-final, they weren’t very lucky in both, and it could end up being a not bad season.

But they will have to buy players, and not sit around thinking they got it right all along. No, they didn’t do that. They are miles away from Man City and Arsenal. You have to look at the big picture.

They need to bring experience in the summer. It seems that Thiago Silva will be the main experienced player.

So they have to add to that, you need that if you want consistency when things aren’t going so well, and they can just calm it down a little bit. They probably need an experienced defender to take Silva’s place, and they could also use another striker.

They want to get into the Champions League next year, for sure. So they need to start closing the gap on Arsenal and Man City.

This is Chelsea, not an ordinary team. Chelsea are used to winning things, they want to win things – and not finish fourth in the league like Tottenham wanted, and celebrate that.

I don’t see how Poch won’t be in charge next season, although nothing surprises him. I never thought they should get rid of him, he’s a good coach. Individuals gain nothing, and as long as they can resolve this and continue to play as a team, everything will be fine.

I would have stayed with Moyes – we’ve seen that happen before

West Ham need to be careful what they wish for. Moyes uprooted trees there and won a European trophy. Solid seventh, eighth, ninth, top half of the table again.

I’m not saying it will happen overnight, what happened with Charlton, but I remember that many years ago when I played, their fans were asking to get rid of Alan Curbishley, saying he was annoying, in the middle of the table, they wanted to kick about.

They have never been seen since. This manager is at the top of the drawer. They won a European trophy! It’s crazy.

I wouldn’t have gotten rid of it in a month of Sundays. You’ll have West Ham fans coming back, saying this and that, throwing out all the statistics in the world. But I’m just going to present the biggest statistic of all. Him. I win. You. R. Trophy.

I don’t mind this fun football, we didn’t play that well, we should be better with these players. They won a trophy! You look at Arsenal, they are unbelievable and could end up with nothing.

Arsenal did nothing wrong – and still won’t win the league

I said before that Fulham was the only game that could upset Man City. If you look at it right now, what chance do Tottenham have? What chances do West Ham have? This is the only game.

Fulham were at Brentford last week and managed 0-0. But the moment Man City scores, you can’t see Fulham scoring two or three goals. I expect the game to be difficult, but I said a while ago, when Arsenal lost to Aston Villa, I didn’t give them a chance.

They did really well staying there, to be honest. They didn’t do anything wrong except one game against a team that is a good team – but can’t win a game right now! That’s why people keep playing for big clubs – that’s the difference, everyone wants to beat you.

Since then, Villa have held off against Chelsea, been beaten by Olympiakos and then defeated by Brighton.

Fulham is the bar of last chance. If they win this game, it’s over.

Ange can’t afford a repeat season next year

I’ve said before that it won’t be the same next year for Tottenham. This is one of those situations where you look at it and think, yeah, free hit, free hit, it’s a lot better than last year.

But there’s no way they can have that next year, being beaten four and five, with no plan B. But that’s what happened.

Everyone jumped in on the moves. He will be working on it – the man is a good coach. But every time they let in a goal now, they’re in trouble.

Everyone loved him, the press loved him, everyone loved him, unless you were an Arsenal fan. Now everyone is jumping on it.

I like Ange, don’t get me wrong. For a neutral, it’s bright. If you’re a fan, I’m not so sure. It’s easy to live with that philosophy when you’re Celtic manager. ‘Let’s go out and play football head on.’

You can’t do that at Tottenham. No disrespect, but you can do that at Celtic. If you open the game up there, you have a chance, we have a chance, you win the game. That’s not the case with Spurs.

You have to be cute, that’s why people like Mourinho and Conte came in and played the way they did. They could have come in and played like that, assessed things and said they were going to win a lot of games – but in the big ones, you were going to get knocked out.

He has to change next season. Tottenham fans are already getting restless; his season is stopping Arsenal from winning the league now. We can’t continue to live like this and the players also have to stand up.

Maddison returned from injury and didn’t touch the ball. It’s not just the coach, he’s had injuries, but we can’t keep doing what he’s doing. I like him, I like the way they play, but it’s no use if you’re a fan.