Mikel Merino came off the bench to score a late brace as Arsenal kept up the pressure on league leaders Liverpool with a 2-0 win at Leicester.
With four senior attackers sidelined, Mikel Arteta turned to his compatriot and namesake with the game hanging in the balance. The midfielder didn’t disappoint, delivering an expert cameo as an auxiliary striker, first heading home Ethan Nwaneri’s cross before sealing the win from close range. He later dedicated the goals to his wife – after forgetting to get her a Valentine’s Day present. Cute.
Here’s what the managers, players, stattos and pundits made of the action…
Mikel Arteta on sealing the points late on…
We knew it was going to be tough. 10 days without competing, I think the first 20 minutes we were a bit sloppy, giving away so many simple balls. We have a lot of time on the ball and no real pressure. That opened up the game a little bit. We didn’t have the feeling we were a real threat and playing with enough urgency. I wasn’t too happy with that. Second half we looked much sharper. We came out with different intentions, different ring, much more purpose. The moment they were a little bit flatter and we were more attacking in the final third, we believed that Mikel [Merino] could give us something else with Leo [Trossard] off the left. Unbelievable, because you have to try the things to get them working. And he made them work, basically.
Source: BBC Sport
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Ruud van Nistelrooy on his side’s defeat…
Thin margins. Thin margins. The chance of Bobby De Cordova-Reid, just touched by Lewis-Skelly, I think with the Jordan Ayew cross. If you can get up in the game with a goal, lift the spirit, gain momentum and the crowd as well. I think that was a turning point. They scored late on, 81st [minute], we were in the game for a result and maybe a win. But, OK, that makes it hard again. We did what we could in all parts of the game, on the ball, off the ball, defending the set pieces, also playing out and creating in certain moments when we could. If not, we looked long and played off the second ball or from the third man into our forwards. We had two chances from Wilfred Ndidi, one with the header and one with the volley, and the Bobby chance. You need some luck to get a goal and go up against a side like this, because you know they bring on top-quality subs as well, they can decide the game in a split second, and they did.
Source: BBC Sport
Leicester 0-2 Arsenal 📈
Mikel Merino was Arsenal’s hero as he came off the bench to fire two late goals and defeat Leicester City at the King Power Stadium.
We look back at the game with our Leicester vs Arsenal stats page: theanalyst.com/2025/02/leic…
— Opta Analyst (@optaanalyst.optajoe.com) February 15, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Mikel Merino on being asked to play striker…
It was just big news for me when this morning one of the assistants just told me that it was an option. It is the first time in my career, well, practically ever, that I play this position. But the good thing is that the way this team plays, I think everybody knows what everybody has to do. So, yeah, I just try to do my best. Mikel told me to just try to use my strengths, be in the box, win duels, try to hold the ball. I was in the right place at the right moment and my teammates put some amazing balls. So, two goals and, most important, three points for the team.
Source: BBC Sport
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Arteta on Merino being similar to his former teammate Marouane Fellaini…
I didn’t think that to be fair [on the comparisons], but Mikel has got that. He’s a goal threat, because he can smell danger, he can anticipate the action, he’s got really good timing to arrive into certain areas and then he obviously has the capacity to execute with that part of his body. He needed the delivery, certainly had that as well and he put it into the back of the net.
Source: Post-game press conference
#Arsenal are starting a Premier League game without any of Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus & Kai Havertz for the first time since beating Brighton 2-0 in the final game of the 2020-21 season. At least one of those has started each of our last 138 league games.
— Harvey Downes (@harveydownes92.bsky.social) February 15, 2025 at 11:46 AM
Jurrien Timber on teenage teammates Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly…
You almost forget they are so young. They are amazing for that age. it’s from a different level and the sky is the limit for them.
Source: BBC Match of the Day
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Joe Cole on Ethan Nwaneri…
He’s a strong little thing. You can’t mark him because he can go both ways. These touches he produces in and around the box, I don’t want to say it, but it’s like Messi. I don’t want to put any more pressure on the kid’s shoulders, I’m sure he’ll deal with it. He plays with such confidence and he’s a beautiful player.
Source: TNT Sports
Arteta on Nwaneri’s contribution…
What he’s showing basically, that’s him. Obviously, his age is something that puts a question mark on how we have to deal with him, but every time he’s always ‘let me go, let me go, let me go.’ When a player is giving you all those signs, you shouldn’t stop it, and you have to play with that freedom, that creativity, that confidence that he’s playing with at the minute and the players around him believe in him. So, let him go because he’s a massive threat, massive talent and he deserves to play.
Source: Post-game press conference
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Martin Keown on Nwaneri…
It’s almost like Saka. It’s a huge leg-up for the club. You lose Saka and you’ve almost got his twin out there. This young man, I thought he was immense. He’s so confident and he steps into the ball and he’s aggressive when he travels with it. He looks so assured for such a young man. His decision-making is different class. His skill set, the pace, he’s assured in possession, he’s confident, he’s determined, hits it off his left foot, hits it off his right just as well and it’s all there. Boy, do we need him.
Source: TNT Sports
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Merino on Nwaneri…
Every time I do an interview, you guys ask me about him. But I mean, it’s natural because he’s such a talent.
Source: TNT Sports
Only two players have come off the bench to score both of #Arsenal’s first two goals in a Premier League game:
◎ Cesc Fàbregas vs Aston Villa – December 2009
◉ Mikel Merino vs Leicester – February 2025
— Harvey Downes (@harveydownes92.bsky.social) February 15, 2025 at 2:50 PM
Ian Wright on Arsenal finding solutions to their injury crisis…
We said at the start of the show, who is going to come off the bench and do something? We didn’t say Mikel Merino even though his name was mentioned as one of the false nines. He come on and obviously proved his point. I’m delighted for him and for the boys, he’s come on and done the job for us.
Source: Premier League Productions
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Michael Owen on switching Merino for Sterling…
If you were being cruel you would say it was an obvious change as Raheem Sterling wasn’t having his best game, it was a good substitution. Maybe it’s given us a little glimpse of what it will be like for Arsenal now. They’re going to have to be really strong at the back, chances weren’t free flowing for them. If they hadn’t won today you’d be thinking [their title charge] was over.
Source: Premier League Productions
Arsenal have gone 15 Premier League games unbeaten for the first time since April 2011 under Arsene Wenger.
DWWWDDWWWDWDWWW.
Merino on supporters singing his name…
It’s amazing. It’s just an unbelievable feeling. The supporters are showing me so much love. I’m really thankful for that. I can only answer by working hard, trying to give them all the love back. and hopefully in the future I can make them proud.
Source: Arsenal.com
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Timber on the title race…
You know how tight it is and you know how good the opposition is. We need three points next week and the week after that. The reality is that we are chasing them and we need to win our games.
Source: BBC Match of the Day
Jamie Vardy looks like a tired old man who would happily retire but for a really big fucking lawyers bill.
Oh god I hope this is true
He was a proper little rat today. Throwing himself on the ground every opportunity.
Well, it’s only to be expected… rats operate a lot closer to the ground than
footballers.
They don’t have good eyesight and rely on a keen sense of smell, mostly looking for urine trails to follow (gross i know, but so is Jamie vardy).
Good one!
Well tbh, his energy made me think he is 25 and Sterling is 45.
Albert Steptoe
The Man of the Match award is a bottle of shampoo?
Nwaneri was head and shoulders above the others
Conditioner.
Head and shoulders presumably?
I didn’t know he had dandruff.
He doesn’t.
He doesn’t
Lolllllll literally exactly what I thought
He’s too young for the bottle of champagne.
I’m confused by both Merino & Arteta suggesting they haven’t talked about Merino playing as a striker until this morning.
I would think they trained it heavily ever since they learned about Kai’s injury.
Btw I’m aware they might simply not be telling the truth, but I don’t see much benefit in this case.
I think Arteta explains the reason for not telling ‘them’. Does seem surprising but it kind of makes sense. And stroke of genius. I don’t think it will be so easy next time. I know when I play pool for the first time in ages it just sort of flows, instinctive. After a couple of frames I start to think about it too much.
My guess would be horses for courses – the game state and team were playing will dictate who goes on?
Crumbs I’m the opposite lol rusty to begin with then crank it up – love a game of pool
I’m thumbing this for the ‘crumbs’.
I’m thumbing this up for thumbing that up for “crumbs”.
That’s likely it!
Judging from Merino’s answers, he’ll be just as surprised next week. 😀
Throws opponents from planning ahead if they dont know our future options upfront.
I don’t think it is something Arteta wants to do, but rather something he is being forced to do — just like Partey at times at right back this year. Not ideal by any stretch, as you want the players in positions with muscle memory and well-trained tactics, but the latent value in this team he has assembled is their ability to adapt. I don’t think playing Merino as a striker from kickoff is going to produce the results it did today.
Maybe it would. Strikers need service, and Trossard and Nwaneri can provide that!
Who else took that role in training? Someone did
Depending on the game state, he would have bought on whoever fit at the time. If they were pressing high, I doubt we would have put in Merino.
Martin Keown: he’s like Saka’s twin.
Joe Cole: Oh yeah? Hold my beer. He’s like Messi.
“He’s a strong little thing.” why does that sound so inappropriate coming from Joe Cole?
I feel like the “ex Chelsea player” thing has been exaggerated, if you get them out of there early enough they can still be saved and not turn out to be completely pointless human beings. Unfortunately for Joe Cole that wasn’t the case for him.
Does sound a bit creepy, but i guess you can’t call him a ‘steely little fucker’ on television
“Ex west ham flop Joe cole”
Even with season-ending injuries, this team isn’t going away. Credit to Mikel for keeping the boys going. You have to feel for Sterling. I don’t know what happened to him. He lacks the confidence to do anything. I’ll suggest that Arteta should play Oyedeji instead of Sterling at this point. I don’t think he can do any worse. An academy player with a point to proof will run himself to the ground for the team. His value will also rise with a few games at the top level if we want to sell. I don’t think Nwanieri is Odegaard’s deputy.… Read more »
I can actually see Nwanieri being on the pitch the SAME time as odegaard and saka 👍
Yes, he is more similar to Saka than Odegaard. But he is too good for a deputy. Hope he can deliver on the left wing when Saka returns and solve our LHS issues
He’s certainly two-footed enough.
Nwaneri is too good to be benched, but won’t replace a fit Saka…yet. They would need to find a place for him in the team, maybe on the left.
We could try this “rotation” thing, I believe it’s quite trendy these days.
Maybe if we didn’t play the same players all the time, they wouldn’t fall apart quite as much.
This
After all the doom and gloom with the Kai injury something to be very happy about. After Ethans both efforts hitting the woodwork I thought it would be another game where scousers drop points then we do the same again, great recycle by Dec to keep the ball in our possession to allow set up for the 1st and clever play from our captain to get free from defence to put us on the attack for the 2nd, obviously Meranos positioning and execution was sublime, the kind of area’s Kai drifts into. Harder games to come i know but let’s… Read more »
Just a bit of fun in the match report comments
You are, no doubt, aware that posting links to one’s own comments in other own comments is tantamount to digital masturbation?
Only thing worse is when people pull up their own tweets on stream and proceed to read them.
Mika Biereth scored a hatrick for Monaco today!
Again.
I’ll be accepting “Gunnerzaurus apology forms” for the few who were flaming me for being optimistic this past week
You know who you are 😉 COYG!!!
I do remember something about keeping expectations down to earth, which was sensible.
There is absolutely no harm in keeping sterling on the bench and playing academy players instead. Who knows, they might be good and we have another star on our hands and even make some money like Balogun. Playing Sterling is just counterproductive.
It would be nice to have eleven players on the pitch instead of ten and whatever sterling is doing.
“We came out with… different ring…” I have no idea what this means.
as a native speaker myself, i guess he tried to say something like a “different tone”, or “the right pitch”, as we associate that word also with sound. after much googling i did find a dictionary that defines ring as “the sound a bell makes”, but most dictionaries only refer to the circular object, so i guess it’s not a popular way to use that word for native english speakers?
Half-time enemas?
Can’t spell Arsenal without…
Nah – that’ll be the rocket that Mik shoved up the collective ‘Arse’
i really like saka and i acknowledge how impactful he is every time he plays, always providing a goal or an assist. but i don’t share the rest of the fan base’s feelings about him. i think he’s good or very good and that’s about it. most of the things he tries don’t come off and he relies too much on his left foot. ethan, on the other hand… i won’t bet on a kid sustaining that level for too long, but if he could do it, it truly feels like an upgrade on saka. everything he does is dangerous.… Read more »
the way i’d describe it, the further away from goal you go the better saka is in comparison to ethan. 40 yards away intricate build up.. sake is the finished article and ethan has a ways to go
Is it just my ears, or do so many of the TV fools keep saying “Moreno”.
Even Keown kept saying Moreno Moreno…
Joe Cole of all people got it right.
Lil’ Joe was also wrong – that was just his nasal Chav twang making it sound better.
At the beginning of the season when my son questioned us not replacing the likes of Smith-Rowe I would stare at him and say “Nwa-ne-ri” in a voice similar to Billy Krystal in “Analyze This” when he said “con-sig-liari” after slapping Jelly around.
He’d just roll his eyes like I was totally overhyping the kid.
TBH I’m not sure even I thought he would be this good.
We have a very, very special player on our hands!
Btw that was one of the funniest scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie. Absolute classic.
Joe Cole calling anyone ‘little’ is pretty rich, considering he’s all of five foot nine.
With or without heels?
I wonder how Merino will play when he returns to left 8
It was seats likely that as the game went on, Leicester would end up sitting back.
Nwaneri was the key to pushing them back so much that it showed Merino to come into a game state where he didn’t have to run channels and chase pointless balls over the top.