Paul Merson assesses Chelsea, Enzo Maresca and Arne Slot's first game at Liverpool | Football News

Paul Merson assesses Enzo Maresca and Arne Slot's first games in charge of Chelsea and Liverpool respectively, why Raheem Sterling holds all the cards in the Stamford Bridge clash and what makes Mohamed Salah so unique.

Chelsea did nothing to help Man City

To be honest, I don't think Chelsea were wearing gloves against Man City. There are times when you play against Man City with home advantage, without Rodri, Phil Foden and Kyle Walker, and I thought that was one of them. They were very nervous and played from behind in pre-season.

I know the season is only just beginning, but there will be a time when we play against Man City and that will be a good time. You can't judge them by that game alone, but like I said, it was the right time to play.

But I can't make a judgment yet. I think it's better to wait 10 games. If we wait 10 games, we can see where we are in the league.

For Many City, if you look at yesterday, it was a tough game, Chelsea won away. I thought Arsenal could go ahead of Manchester City this season. They would probably draw with Chelsea.

I was shocked that X-factor Raheem Sterling didn't play against City, but now he holds all the cards.

(statement) I have no problem with that. He wants to know that he is playing. His career is coming to an end, he has played a lot of football, he wants to play football and he doesn't want to be stuck there.

I don't think this needs to happen now. The club's manager has a rough idea that if Pedro Neto comes in, he won't really be involved until two weeks before the season starts.

Sterling has so much money that I feel like I should get rid of him immediately, and I hate to think how much it would cost to get rid of him.

I don't know what's going to happen, but I want to buy him. It was a shock to me that he didn't participate yesterday. He has a lot to offer, and he's one of those guys that has the X-factor all day long.

I was pretty shocked, but you know, the manager makes the decision, but I thought this could have been stopped two or three weeks ago when it started sprouting.

Raheem holds all the cards now, but I think he just wants to play football. The way he is at Chelsea is not good in that situation. Nathaniel Chalobah played a lot of football last season, and now he is training with the kids and not training with the first team.

Conor Gallagher is in the middle of nowhere at Atletico Madrid and that doesn't look good. We're the bosses, but we've just got to move on from there. I thought the days of him just sitting in the reserves doing nothing were long gone.

If someone can go without training with you and their attitude is bad, you go, you know, you go to the reserves and train with the kids. I don't like that atmosphere now. There are a lot of people training, probably because there are a million players there now.

Maresca needs to find the best team quickly.

I said it from the beginning and I will say it again as Chelsea manager. He (Enzo Maresca) has to find the best team very quickly. We saw it last year with Mauricio Pochettino. He never knew what the best team was and every weekend he asked, “What's the Chelsea team going to be like?” And you could be five points behind.

Now I can tell you what Arsenal's team will be like next week. I know 100 percent. And I can tell you what Arsenal's team will be like in five weeks. And that's something he has to sort out very quickly. Yesterday, he brought in three forwards, and there has to be some balance in some ways.

The two most important things to win anything are the goalkeeper and the striker. No one can win anything without the best goalkeeper. And you need a center forward.

Yes, Arsenal don't have a striker but they have a great goaltender and you saw David Raya's brilliant save from Jorgen Strand Larsen the other day. When he scores, Wolves feel like they can breathe and the game changes.

If you look at yesterday, Chelsea always had a chance to win 1-0. They had a chance before the end of the game and the goalkeeper conceded a second goal and the game was over. It was like putting a pin in a balloon and that was it. The football game was over. He had to save it.

So that's the worry for Chelsea, those are the two most important things. Look at Erling Haaland yesterday. People are saying he only touched the ball three times and it makes me laugh. I'd rather him touch the ball 1,600 times and not score!

The irreplaceable Mohamed Salah, one chance

If you are one of the big teams, the last thing you want to do is play one of the promoted teams first. You want to play in November when reality sets in and you can't win football games and you have a lot of injuries.

It was a draw early in the season and Liverpool equalised in the first half. With a bit more class Ipswich could have scored, but this is what happened in the second half.

Cream is on top and it's merciless. Last year in the championship, if they played like that 99.9% of the time, they would have won that game. But in the end, it was damage limitation and you think it's going to be 4 or 5. They didn't really do anything wrong.

I can't praise Salah enough. How many goals have he scored now? He's a right winger. He's a right winger. It's amazing. He does it every season. He's Frank Lampard of Liverpool and he's a right winger!

Who has played on the right wing and recorded those numbers? Not many, he's a one-off, special, you can't replace those guys. He shows up every week, he's fit, he hasn't missed a lot of games.

saturday night football The Villa away game is a real test of Arsenal's title credentials.

Arsenal have been very good at times. Not for 90 minutes, but in the phases of the game, the pattern of play. No disrespect to Man Utd, but on Friday night it was a good result, but when you look at Arsenal the next day, it's a mess. The gap between the two teams is really huge.

On the other hand, it was an unbelievable result for Villa. It was a tough game and a tough place to go. I don't know what the West Ham manager (Julen Lopetegui) did. He bought all those players and didn't play them. It was a huge deal and I thought it was a bit strange.

But I felt bad for him. No matter how hard you work and who you bring in, if people don't notice you in the set play and don't let go of your marker, it doesn't matter who you are. Pep Guardiola is the best in the business, but if Ruben Dias keeps losing his man, it doesn't matter what Guardiola does.

But we saw it at Newcastle last year. It's a big ask for Villa, there's an extra game in the Champions League and the players haven't played in the game before. It took Man City three years to win the title. It's tough and difficult to come back on Saturday, not just to compete.

But it was a good start, because if they lose that game and then lose to Arsenal, then the next game is away, and they could have lost three games in their first three, and all of a sudden, that's a bad start to the season.

But the game against Arsenal is a big game. It's a benchmark and a good test for Arsenal. Villa did a double against Arsenal last year and that knocked them out of the league. But it was Arsenal's best game at Villa Park this season and they should have won that game quite comfortably.

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But in other games I think Villa did well for them. They just sat on the ropes and got punched and thought “let's give it a go…”

It's an important game, and Manchester City have an advantage because they won at Chelsea. Arsenal have to go to Chelsea, and it's a difficult game for Arsenal. It's a London derby.

But if Arsenal win against Villa and it goes back to Arsenal's favour, I see it that way. When Arsenal lost to West Ham and Fulham in December last year, that was the end of the title and you know Man City won't lose in those kind of games.