Arteta reassesses Merino as striker after West Ham blank | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta still believes Mikel Merino can play up front despite Arsenal’s failure to score on Saturday, claiming the West Ham blank was about more than one player.

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In the build up to Arsenal’s game against Leicester City the weekend before last, Gunners fans were somewhat incredulous after hearing suggestions that Mikel Arteta might look to play Mikel Merino as a centre-forward.

Even with Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus injured, it seemed like there must be a better option than having a midfielder lead the line. But those opinions started to shift when Merino came off the bench to score a brace.

Suddenly Merino looked like the obvious choice to start against West Ham, and he did. Yet this time it didn’t work, and Arsenal lost 1-0.

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So where does that leave us now? Was Merino’s performance against Leicester a one-off, or could he still have a part to play up front in the coming games against Nottingham Forest and the rest?

Speaking in his press conference on Tuesday, Arteta suggested the Spaniard is still an option for the position.

“Yes (he can still play there) – in relation to the opposition and the options we have, and then what the team generates as well,” Arteta said.

“Attacking players depend a lot on what the team is generating, the chemistry, the fluidity, the areas we are hitting, and how we interact with each other. It worked really well against Leicester, but the other day there were a lot of things missing.”

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Arsenal will hope to have Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka back from injury in a month or so, but Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus are out for the season.

The team’s centre-forward problem isn’t going away, so Arteta is unlikely to give up on a potential solution at the first sign of adversity.