Paul Merson will allow that Arsene Wenger can keep his job if Man City win the League. City are nine points the leaders with a game in hand.
But if anyone other than them - or of course 'the Arsenal' - gets it done then he can sling his hook.
As an Arsenal fan, he can cope if he convinces himself that the team who are beating them to the League have truckloads more money than them.
But Merson evidently feels the indignity of watching Leicester or Spurs win a League title would be too much to bear and the manager must go.1
Here is what he said on Sky Sports;
If Man City don't win the league and Tottenham or Leicester do then Arsene Wenger has to go," he told Sky Sports.
If you're sitting there telling those fans - loyal Arsenal fans - that they don't need any new players at the start of the season and then you don't win the league in front of Leicester or Tottenham then I don't see how you can justify it.
If Man City win the league he can turn around and say 'they've got all the money in the world and can go and buy whoever they want, so would whoever I bought have made much difference?'
But if Leicester or Tottenham win the league after he said they didn't need any players then I don't see how he can keep his job.
Observing Arsenal at the weekend was a torture for the Merse. He suggested that complacency was a factor in the defeat. They went to Old Trafford and thought they could swan past the depressing new United.
They went out on Sunday with an attitude of 'it's only Man United and they've got loads of injuries and kids playing, so we'll breeze through this game'.
It just frustrates me and it absolutely does my head in.
He does not subscribe to the Soccernomics viewpoint that Wenger has achieved over the past decade roughly what one might expect for a club with their wage bill.
According to Merson, there are a thousand other managers who could take over Arsenal and deliver them a fourth place finish year on year.
