Paul Merson: Arsenal’s wait for a European trophy is ‘mind-blowing’

Champions League crown would complete one of the club’s greatest ever seasons, adds former Gunner

Former Arsenal midfielder Paul Merson says it’s “mind-blowing” that Arsenal have failed to win a European trophy, since the club’s 1994 Cup Winners’ Cup success.

Speaking to Historic Newspapers, Merson said: “European competitions are always difficult to win because if you have one bad game, it’s goodnight.

“I was part of the Arsenal team that won the 1994 Cup Winners’ Cup and for the club not to have won a European trophy in the 32 years since is mind-blowing.

“But if Arsenal were to now win the Premier League and the Champions League in the space of a fortnight, it would have to go down as one of the club’s greatest ever seasons. The Invincibles were special, because nobody will ever go undefeated again, but it would still be some feat to deliver two major trophies, considering the amount of pressure Mikel Arteta’s team have been under all season and in the past few weeks.”

Memories of 1994

Arsenal’s last European trophy came with a 1-0 victory over Parma in the 1994 Cup Winners’ Cup final, and Merson has fond memories of that night.

He added: “Winning a European competition is so different to winning the Premier League. The league is every week against teams and players who you’ve faced loads of times before, but when you go abroad it’s completely different. 

“Back in the day, you’d go to European games and players would be pulling your shirt and spitting at you – the skullduggery that happened on those pitches was completely different to the English game. You were really going into the unknown. 

“That night in 1994, the Cup Winners’ Cup final against Parma, was one to remember, what an amazing night. That Parma team had some really good players too like Gianfranco Zola and Faustino Asprilla. It was a really difficult match – we had to work hard and we barely had any of the ball. Alan Smith then got an unbelievable goal and we did what we did best – defended from the front and ground our opponents down. In those days under George Graham, when we used to go 1-0 up, we fancied ourselves against anybody.”

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