Mikel Artetatalked about his central forward options in the Arsenal squad.
Viktor Gyökeres has gone down with an injury that forced him off before the second half against Burnley, Gabriel Jesus is recovering from his ACL injury, and Kai Havertz is in rehab for a knee injury. The German is closest to being back on the pitch, but caution is advisable for the moment.
So, there could be more minutes upfront for Mikel Merino. The Spaniard stepped up to the plate in the second half of last season as a makeshift striker, and he scored twice in midweek in Prague.
“Let’s see how [Kai] absorbs the load first when he starts to train with us and when he’s done that, obviously we’re going to have, especially in the first few weeks, keep an eye on him to manage the amount of minutes and when we play him.
“But when you look at his record and what he’s done in his career, he’s played every single game, he’s almost never been injured and now he has this issue with his knee. But it will be resolved and hopefully he will be back to his best.
“It’s always easy when we have players of that quality. We have found a way to play Mikel in three different roles already this season, and he has performed in all of them. He had a massive contribution the other night with his goals, especially with Viktor out, which is great to have.
“It’s not natural because he hasn’t played there before in his career, but he’s such an intelligent and competitive player that he can adapt to any position, because first of all, he’s so willing to do his very best, to understand what he needs to do. He’s always asking questions and he’s a winner. Wherever he plays, the only thing he wants is to win, to contribute to the team, and when you have that mindset, things normally go well for you.
“I think they’re all squad players because we have built a squad that can have the capacity to achieve what we want. The roles will change and his has changed now in the last two seasons in different ways for different situations as well, but the impact on the team remains very, very positive.”
