Arsenal: Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly (Calafiori); Odegaard, Partey (Jorginho), Rice; Nwaneri, Trossard (Tierney), Sterling (Merino).
Arsenal will need to find goals from some unexpected sources over the next few months and Mikel Merino stood up to the task on Saturday, coming off the bench to score a second half brace in a 2-0 win at Leicester.
There were no surprises in the Arsenal line-up, with Leandro Trossard starting through the middle as Mikel Arteta opted for a familiar system and used the only three available first team forwards he has left.
The first half passed by without much incident, with Arsenal dominating possession but the makeshift front three struggling to find a breakthrough. Arsenal’s nearest misses of the half saw captain Martin Odegaard twice scooping the ball over the Leicester backline for Leandro Trossard, but the Belgian was offside the first time around and failed to connect at the second time of asking.
At the other end, an early Wilfred Ndidi half-volley was the only effort to call David Raya into action. The Leicester midfielder had the most threatening effort either side offered in the first half in stoppage time, nodding a header wide from 12 yards.
Arsenal’s struggles continued over the break but the Gunners were able to get Odegaard on the ball more and the Norwegian teed up Nwaneri on the hour mark, with the teenager letting rip and clipping the top of the bar from just outside the box.
Nwaneri continued to offer Arsenal’s biggest threat, winning a foul in a dangerous area on the right and later fizzing a cross across the box as the guests continued to look for the opener.
Mikel Arteta finally looked to his bench with just over 20 minutes remaining, introducing Mikel Merino up front as an ineffective Raheem Sterling made way. The Spaniard was inches away from a whipped Jurrien Timber cross as Arsenal continued to push forward but sloppy play on the ball still gave Leicester opportunities to break, with Myles Lewis-Skelly forced to turn a low Jordan Ayew cross around the post after Thomas Partey had misplaced a square ball in midfield.
It was Nwaneri who again posed Leicester questions, cracking the post with an driven shot on his right foot after a quick break led by Declan Rice. The next time Arsenal had the ball in front of goal it was nestling into the back of the net and Nwaneri was involved again, clipping a perfect cross towards Mikel Merino, who made no mistake. (GOAL 0-1)
The Spaniard has been touted as Arsenal’s unlikely most likely option to take Kai Havertz’s place up front and his audition for the role could hardly have gone any better.
As if the opener wasn’t enough, it was the makeshift striker who doubled the lead too, arriving at the back post to slide home a Leandro Trossard cross after a quick breakaway. (GOAL 0-2)
Cue the away end serenading Arsenal’s number 23 and the man they will now be leaning on to carry the goalscoring burden for the Gunners. It looks like Arteta has, for now, found someone to lead the line over the next while. Merino’s brace sees Arsenal close the gap to Liverpool at the top of the league to four points before the Reds host Wolves at Anfield on Sunday. It’s back to London for Arsenal now, with a whole week on the training ground to work on any ideas to get more out of the attack ahead of next weekend’s visit of West Ham.
Nice
Buried my maternal uncle today. Really needed this.
This win his for him mate.
Thank you, kind Sir.
❤️
Condolences
Thank you, my good Sir.
Hugs and love to you Dada
Much appreciated J.
All my Goonerish love to you.
Felt that!
I lost my dad in September last year and 4 days later we went to spurs on the 15th (also my birthday) and beat them, it really did make a big difference to how I coped, as insane as that probably sounds
Sorry to hear, D.
Thoughts and prayers with you and the fam
Accept my heartfelt condolences.🙏🏾
Thoughts are with you mate.
Like a new signing, love a new striker!!
WiB
Arteta is a budding genius. For me, that was an inspired substitution, brought out of the proverbial depths of desperation…but could we, by pure happenstance, have stumbled on the solution to our striking problem after Havertz injury?…the plus for me was that the 2 goals he scored were pure top poacher striker goals🤫
Was it also genius in signing Sterling, who looked a busted flush at Chelsea, on a loan deal?
I for one, welcome our new Mikel Merino overlord.
13 games to go, I’ll take that.
John Radford
Why doesn’t Gabriel Magalhaes, the largest of the Gabis, simply injure the other two and take their power?
Hahaha
Maybe he already has… 🤔
Hands up who had Merino brace on their bingo cards?
Arteta continues to amaze in his use of players in odd positions… and it works!
Myles Kelly and Michael Mourinho were brilliant today
lol joe Cole also called him Lewis kelly about ten times
Who needs Isak when you have got Merino, eh?
On a serious note though, thank God that ended well for us! Ethan has gone and done himself proud again.
Tougher oppositions to come — to these guys have shown they can find a way. Let’s go support Wolves now 😀
He can score with his head , he can score with his legs . What is his name MIKEL MERINO. oh oh oh oh oh. We are best. We are the arsenal. Oh oh oh lalala
Well, it seems we have already signed a striker in the summer without even knowing it. 😂
Internal solutions!!
That’s the second time Mikel does that… really shrewd tactic.
as we did the summer before with our left 8 Havertz
Far from thrilling but absolutely amazing considering the circumstances. Clean sheet, solid control and we’ve got new striker on top.
This is the team until the summer, so let’s get behind them, Sterling included. We need him!
Agreed.
Sterling is unusable, he proved that today. He’s Denis Suarez levels bad. I’d rather play literally anybody else, Tierney would be far more effective.
We all see how Sterling weakens the team. Stop with the get behind him bs
I’ll get behind him whenever he’s played, but that should be never. What he gave today, we don’t need. Rather have Tierney or Zinchenko out there swinging crosses into… Merino, apparently!
What I will say for Sterling is he didn’t give up. He kept asking for the ball and kept running at their backup fullback. Sure, he got tackled borderline humiliatingly every time, but he kept doing it, so I gained some respect for his character and perseverance.
Sorry, he did give up, a long time ago. Vardy looks like a spring chicken compared to him and he is 8 yrs older.
Everytime he got into a 1v1 he became hesitant, and would lose the ball or the feet under him, and he NEVER tracked back. NOT ONCE
So please stop with the gas lighting, the guy is genuinely spent and he should buy Declan a few frothies for covering his arse.
Vardy was 27 when he made his Premier League debut. Sterling was 17.
I’m not saying it to disagree with you but I think it’s fair to point it out.
Are you saying Vardy should be fresher, because he started playing pro 10 yrs later?
yes, that’s what he is saying. And it’s true
Seriously? Do you think Vardy started playing professionally at age 27?
I actually am! He signed his first professional contract with Leicester when he was 25. He played non-league until then.
And I believe the difference in intensity plays a big part. Here’s an article from 2016 where Vardy himself admits “Hopefully because I came into the game later, it means I’ve got longer to go.”
And he wasn’t wrong!
Do you know what gaslighting actually is?! Off topic but can’t stand the way that word has started to be thrown around. A difference of opinion about a footballer isn’t gaslighting for pity’s sake.
Bite me!
He tried over and over again to not be offside.
Happy?
I give you facts, you throw me opinions.
Re-watch the game, then come talk to me
THANK you!
my friend I’m not gaslighting you because I’m not being serious. I wouldn’t point out that Sterling was tackled humiliatingly if I was trying to convince you he was actually a good player, would I.
The gas lighting part comes from you telling me that he was trying, and i stated the fact that Never did he track back after losing every ball he recieved and lost.
He was perpetually offside, and it didnt seem like he was trying to look across at his line or even try to come back on
💁♂️
Yes. We will need sterling this run in. He needs confidence. He will get match fitter.
Come on Raheem, too-rye-ay
Sterling is finished at this level, sadly we will still have on the bench. I would rather play Tierney as a winger from now on.
100% we need to make liverpool nervous. Wasn’t too long ago their legendary captain let it slip….
Today was needed for us. Ethan is a star. Partey Rice MLS Saliba Gabriel Timber. The best defensive 6 in the league BTW… Merino got some of them striker attributes too. Title run in could get interesting.
Rice was enormous today! Ran himself to the ground.
He’s fucking amazing!!!
💯
And rumour has it, we got 50% off when we bought him
Went into overdrive in the second half. You can see we’re running on fumes even after a break in Dubai. MLS fantastic last ditch defending. Merino should start up front from now on. Nwaneri outstanding. Sad to say, but Sterling is finished at this level.
We might have just found our 9, We won without even breaking a sweat. 3 in the bag. COYG!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE NWANERI!!!
Who knew? We had a proper striker all along. If Haaland had scored those goals everyone would be lauding him. Proper finishes. Trossard looked much better when he moved to the left. Nwaneri was unbelievable. Defence/Raya was calm and at their brilliant best. Ode better in the second half, Rice brilliant and Partey also very good before he tired. Well managed by Arteta. Tougher tests to come but I really enjoyed that.
Haaland at the TV: “Who dis?”
I said that Merino should play up front, didn’t I?
Come on, admit it: I’m a genius, aren’t I?
Were it not for your tendency to go bananas I would recommend you for Arteta’s assistant
🤣👍
Absolute genius FG!!
Big fat genius
I saw it FatG
Get Fatgooner in the dugout with an ipad next to Jover
Yes you are, aren’t you?!
Next level genius Fats.
😅🤣😂🤩🥰
When you want to be
Credit where it’s due – you absolutely called that one pre match.
What do you recommend as lottery numbers tonight?
I’m not telling you: I’ve bought the winning ticket and I’m going to take every penny.
Yeah fatso rub it in😅…but fair point, you did say that,’ genius’ you!….never dreamed the day will come when I will ever agree with you, never mind applaud 👏
See what happens when you eat your veggies?
I’m always happy to give you shit when you say dumb stuff, so it’s only right I should doff my cap when you make sense – chapeau FatG.
Even a stopped clock is right once (or maybe generously, twice) a day. Given some previous contributions, ‘genius’ is not a word that springs to mind.
Wool you believe it? We’re baaa-ck, a flock-ewe win. Mutton to see, no sheep shots here. Foxes lamb-asted, ram-sacked.
👏
U OK fam?
Please God: don’t let Nwaneri get injured. Please.
Nwaneri and Inshallah for the next 2 months
🙏🏽
If there is a god, it has been made abundantly clear that he/she/it is not an Arsenal fan.
Get in there!
COYG
On a day we needed a hero, a new one emerged in the guise of Merino. What’s really most pleasing is that those were proper striker goals. Big shout out to Ethan! What a talent! But my God, Sterling is a total waste of space. Hopefully Martinelli is not out for too long. Over to you Liverpool. The race is on!
Nwaneri though, what a young beast we’ve got on our hands!
It is a “Mikel” something. From one Mikel to another Mikel. I could swear Arteta loves difficult situations; they bring out the best in him.
3 big points!
Never wanna see Sterling in an Arsenal shirt ever again.
Let’s fight for this title
It has to be said: Sterling was magnificent, after he left the pitch.
Would rather see Nathan get those minutes and see what he adds to the team. Sterling hasn’t earned anything yet. Ethan has the quality to make a difference in attack.
I really think Tierney would be better on the left than Sterling
I’ve got a feeling AirPods Albert would be better on the left than Sterling.
It’s just sad to watch him now. There seems to be nothing left of the player he once was.
I kept saying take Sterling off, bring in Jorginho and push Rice up top…then Mikel throws in Mikel, brilliang!
had to dig deep, but 2 very well taken goals! well done lads and thank you!!
Odegaard put his stamp on the game, Nwaneri is a superstar, Merino is our new Giroud. What a result, 13 more games like this please
Those were 80 min of what I feared would happen and 10 minutes of what I wished would happen. COYG
Well found out striker for the rest of the season. Nwaneri outstanding again.
Giroudesque!!!
O oooo oooo Mikel Merino
im still not convinced by merino as a CM. he seems too sluggish and indecisive.
but up top he seems like an older havertz! slightly slower but more intellegent when it comes to finishing.
only 20 mins to judge him on though so lets keep an open eye and mind.
He’d be mad not to start Merino next weekend. He 1. offers real goal threat in the box, 2. allows us to not play Sterling, and 3. allows Trossard to play on the left where he’s so much more effective
MM really looked like he knew what he was doing.
That second goal was beautifully well taken
Weren’t both??? Fantastic header (from a perfect cross) for the first one.
I have seen enough. We don’t need to buy a striker
What’s the point of Sterling? He can’t beat his full-back. It’s almost as if he does not want to. All promising moves down that left hand side broke down when the ball came to him
Whatever happens during the rest of this season never doubt the character of this team. Just SUPPORT them. Nwaneri – what a talent! Well done Merino
Remember when many of us thought that the sixty million down the drain were to replace Xhaka? Perhaps Merino was not bought to provide cover to Rice and TP5 😀
So we buy DM and FB, yes?
These 3 points feel very very important
Really happy for the win
MLS take another bow son.
Your toe poke to save us from going
1-0 down….. “just thank you” ❤️
He is good. Arsenal lucky to have him.
But Calafiori is more unpredictable going forward. Arteta should split the time more equally.
Calafiori should have been earlier in the game. He offers more in attack (see 2nd goal).
Sterling left and Trossard middle does not work…. Keep Trossard left and bring Sterling as substitute…
That timely sidefooted pass to Trossard in the nick of time made a huge difference in the opener
Well that made my day,
Tross, Merino, Ethan front three from now on please
I came here for the “Arsenal need to buy a striker” bantz. Have to say, I found it a little undercooked. So, I offer you these lines for your enjoyment: Top transfer priority this summer should be to find Mikel Merino’s midfield replacement. I know he was injured in his first training session, but given Arsenal spent so much on a No. 9 last summer, Arteta really should have been rotating him in to rest Kai all along, not just turn to Merino as a last resort. To be fair, Arteta was forced to play MM out of position in… Read more »
What I love most is that no one in the team or the staff is feeling sorry for ourselves. No ‘we got so many players out’ excuses or Mikel moaning about lack of signings. We’re just putting our heads down and trying to make things happen. And that attitude can only be a good thing. COYG!