According to Paul Merson, who “can’t head his around” Mikel Arteta’s most recent selection, the Arsenal manager Michael Arteta needs to make a significant change to the lineup that he has chosen for their Champions League match against PSV.
During the first leg of their last-16 match against PSV, which will take place on Tuesday night in Eindhoven, the Gunners will travel to Eindhoven in an effort to establish a potentially decisive advantage going into the second leg of the match the following week.
As a result of the absence of several of their most important players, such as Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, and Kai Havertz, Arsenal will face a challenging obstacle.
Mikel Merino has been used as a substitute striker over the past few weeks as a direct consequence of this situation. During his time in that position, he scored two goals against Leicester City. After that, he started at the top of the lineup for games against West Ham and Nottingham Forest.
Paul Merson, a former midfielder for Arsenal, is of the opinion that Merino ought to be substituted out for the Champions League match that will take place on Tuesday night.
Because Arsenal does not have any firepower at the moment, I do not see them being able to blow PSV away. If they had a full team, this would be a nice draw for Arsenal. He started off by saying, “It’s turned into a tricky tie.”
The last two games that Arsenal have played have both ended in a scoreless draw, and the only time they have scored was in the final ten minutes of their match against Leicester, who have been scoring goals for fun.
I really hope that Mikel Arteta will stop playing the role of Mikel Merino in the front line. I just don’t understand how to make sense of that. Although I am aware that he came on as a substitute against Leicester and scored twice, Leicester is Leicester, and they are not very good.
I would bring Raheem Sterling to the front of the pitch. He is vivacious. Every single day of the week, defenders will be relishing the opportunity to compete against Merino. Because he is not a centre forward. At the very least, Sterling has competed in that area before.
Merson continued by saying, “Look out, this is going to be a risky game.” I would anticipate that Arsenal would advance, but I do not believe that it is as much of a foregone conclusion as it currently appears to be. I believe that it will go a very long way.
Arteta backed Merino after Arsenal’s 1-0 loss to West Ham last month, but Arsenal failed to score for the second consecutive Premier League game against Nottingham Forest on Wednesday night. This was Arsenal’s second consecutive game in which they failed to score.
He is still able to play there, according to Arteta, who stated, “Yes, in relation to the opposition and the options we have, and then what the team generates as well.”
The things that the team is producing, the chemistry, the fluidity, the areas that we are hitting, and how we interact with each other are all factors that have a significant impact on the attacking players. However, the other day there were a lot of things that were missing, despite the fact that it worked really well against Leicester.
Opinions on the possibility of Merino being used as a No. 9? Leave a comment below and let us know.
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