Paul Merson: Leicester Win Papered Over Newcastle Cracks

Despite being Arsenal through and through, Paul Merson has used his weekly predictions column for Sky Sports to suggest the Gunners' biggest rivals are in for an easy ride this weekend. Unsurprisingly - for anyone other than Alan "Champions League" Pardew - Merson thinks that Spurs will walk over Newcastle in the same way that they themselves were brushed aside by Man City last week. Merson says Spurs will win 3-0 against Pardew's team, despite the manager and several players suggesting that Newcastle have now turned a corner - and it's because the hard-fought, but far from impressive victory at St. James' Park distracted from the real issues with the team:

"Tottenham came up against a top-drawer centre-forward in Sergio Aguero last weekend, but I expect them to win this week. If you look beyond that they beat Southampton and drew with Arsenal, so the results haven€™t been too bad. Newcastle let in too many goals and while they got a big result against Leicester last week, it was nothing to write home about. I think the scoreline covered over a lot of cracks."

He couldn't be more right - the attempts to suggest that Newcastle are now on the up, with a grand total of 7 points on the board and stuck in 18th position with Spurs and Liverpool up next are nothing short of ridiculous. A win against a newly promoted side at home - even one surprising with results as Leicester are - is not the tonic to a broken team, and no matter how many times the club beat the drum, it's impossible not to think the next defeat is always on the horizon. And that will continue to be the case as long as nothing changes.