Arsenal are facing a serious personnel problem in attack ahead of Saturday’s game against West Ham. Manager Mikel Arteta has confirmed that his side have been testing various options in training but have not yet decided who will play as a centre-forward. With the squad suffering injuries, Arsenal are forced to be flexible in order to find the best solution. Arsenal are currently without their two most important strikers, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus, who will be out for the rest of the season.
In addition, two key wingers, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli, will also be absent for the next few weeks. This shortage has forced Arteta to come up with different attacking options. In the previous match, when Arsenal beat Leicester City 2-0, he used the trio of Ethan Nwaneri, Leandro Trossard and Raheem Sterling. However, the highlight of the match came from Mikel Merino, who came off the bench to score a brace to help the home team secure all three points. This raises the question of whether Arteta will continue to trust the Spaniard in the No. 9 position.
When asked about this, Arteta did not confirm but left open various possibilities. He emphasized that the team has been experimenting with many attacking options in recent training sessions. “It’s not just Merino, we’ve been experimenting with many other players. I want the players to be proactive when they’re on the pitch. We’ve been training with many different options, including Merino and some other players. In addition, some players from the academy are also training with the first team and may be given a chance. They’re ready, which is a positive thing.”
With what they showed against Leicester, Arsenal will likely have three main options to choose from. The first is to continue to let Trossard play as a center forward, keeping the same system as the previous match. The second is to use Merino from the start, after this player has proven his ability to score goals when pushed forward. Finally, Arteta was able to give a chance to a young talent from the academy, as he stressed that they were progressing rapidly and were ready for the first team.
After losing both Gabriel Jesus and Kai Havertz until the end of the season, coach Mikel Arteta was forced to consider option 2 in the match against Leicester City. That was to use Trossard as a “false 9”. However, this option was not successful. So, the Spanish coach was forced to use the “last trick”. That was to use Mikel Merino as a striker.
This can be said to be a “last resort” action of the Spanish coach. His student from the same Basque country is a defensive midfielder and Merino himself confirmed that he had never trained for this position. However, the Spanish midfielder did well with 2 goals.
The first goal was a header from a cross by young talent Nwaneri. Meanwhile, the second goal was a close-range tap-in after a “set-up” pass from Trossard. In both situations, Leicester City’s defenders overlooked Merino and paid a heavy price. Perhaps they did not sense the danger from the Spanish midfielder.
Merino has a physical advantage as he is 1m88 tall. Last season, the Spanish midfielder had 168 successful aerial duels in La Liga, the most in the tournament. At EURO 2024, Merino’s header in the 119th minute helped Spain overcome hosts Germany in the quarter-finals.
The scenario was almost similar to the match against Leicester City when this midfielder only came on from the bench at the end of the second half. De La Fuente left a “hint” and Arteta took full advantage. The Spanish coach had a very clear intention when recruiting Merino. Remember, Arsenal are currently one of the best teams in England at taking advantage of set pieces with headers.