- Villa were two goals behind Arsenal until Youri Tielemans and Watkins scored
- Merson was taken aback by the defensive effort of one of the Arsenal players
- LISTEN NOW: It's all starting! Is Everton where they deserve to be or are the club's fans deceived?
Paul Merson singled out an Arsenal player for poor defending in Aston Villa's equalizer against the Gunners on Saturday.
Arsenal looked set to cut Liverpool's lead at the top of the Premier League table to four points by leading Villa 2-0 at the Emirates, but Unai Emery's side shocked their hosts by scoring twice to win one point. .
The first came through Youri Tielemans, who beat David Raya to halve the deficit, before Ollie Watkins volleyed the crossbar to get the away team excited.
But one man in particular came under fire in the post-match analysis on Sky Sports, with Paul Merson questioning the player's efforts in trying to stop Watkins.
The goal saw Matty Cash cross from the right with his left foot, before Watkins moved away from his marker to volley into the top of the goal.
Merson became somewhat enraged as he took down the goat, not believing how Watkins was given the opportunity to escape.
Paul Merson criticized an Arsenal star for his role in Ollie Watkins' goal
Watkins scored a volley in the second half to give his team a point against the title-chasing Gunners.
It was Thomas Partey, who was at right back during the match, who let Watkins get away from him.
Merson described the Arsenal player's efforts as “the worst defensive goal of the weekend”.
“It's Partey, it's Partey,” Merson began, speaking on Sky Sports' coverage of the game.
'It is cleaned. Partey gets ready, goes back in and has his man. Then he just leaves it.
“I mean, he has played for one of the most disciplined defensive teams in Europe: Atlético de Madrid. He is a defensive midfielder. He should see danger, he has played that.
'If he comes back in, that's your man. You can't do that. That can't make you win league titles. What he has done is phenomenal.
'Just pick up your man. You are in a race for the league title. My man doesn't score. You take responsibility. He leaves it. “You won't see a worse defensive goal than that all weekend.”
Partey, playing at right back to replace Jurrien Timber, who was moved to centre-back due to William Saliba's injury, was marking Watkins as Villa attempted to create a chance down the right.
But he let Watkins run towards goal, and the England striker scored with a volley.
“We got the goal with Youri and we went up the field and he almost scored again,” Watkins said on Sky after the game. 'We had faith when we went forward, especially in transition, that they were pretty open.
We knew they were going man by man. There were some moments in the first half where I could have done better, but there were opportunities to take advantage of.
