Arsenal's Champions League chances played down by ex-winger due to Mikel Arteta oversight

Arsenal are preparing to kick off their latest Champions League campaign against Napoli, but Paul Merson has expressed serious doubts about their European pedigree.

The prominent Sky Sports pundit firmly believes the Gunners are destined to fall short in their pursuit of continental glory this season.

Merson praised the immense solidity of Mikel Arteta's squad but claimed they ultimately failed to secure a genuine superstar in the summer transfer window.

The defending Premier League champions made concerted moves to lure Vinicius Junior and Julian Alvarez to the Emirates, but the former opted to stay at Real Madrid, and Alvarez was believed to prefer a Barcelona transfer.

Merson believes that the Gunners not having a player of supreme individual quality could ultimately limit the London club's chances in Europe, even if he did laud Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka as standout attackers. 

"I'm a big fan of Kai Havertz," admitted Merson in his Sky Sports News column. "He does a lot of work and he's what I call a good footballer. He works hard and makes the right decisions. I just think he's not going to score 20 goals in a season.

"To take them to the Premier League title, there's no doubt about it, he's a top-drawer player.

"The other thing I look at is when Arsenal go and play against Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain, teams like that in the Champions League latter stages, the centre-halves and the full-backs, getting up in the morning and going to their team talk and saying to one of the other players, "Didn't sleep very well last night, a bit worried about who I'm playing against".  

"I don't see that for Arsenal. Maybe Bukayo Saka for the left-back, but they haven't got that X factor."

Despite harbouring reservations about their offensive firepower, Merson was quick to highlight the extraordinary defensive resilience currently on display in North London.

"It's so hard just to get a shot off against them, let alone score a goal," said the ex-Arsenal man. "Chelsea went there with one of the best, if not the best, front threes in the Premier League.

"They scored after 77 seconds, but I can't remember them ever looking like they'd score another goal after that. So that just shows you how dominant Arsenal are at the moment."

As they face Napoli at the Maradona, Merson expects that dominant defensive structure to easily shine through in Italy, confidently backing his former club to secure a positive result against the Serie A heavyweights. 

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