Not Merino: Arsenal can replace Havertz by handing "special" star new role

This season has felt like a real slog for Arsenal.

Mikel Arteta’s side started their campaign hopeful of finally displacing Manchester City from atop the Premier League, and while they’re comfortably ahead of Pep Guardiola’s behemoth, they also sit seven points off of Liverpool in top spot.

Moreover, they’re set to be without Kai Havertz for the rest of the season, on top of injuries to Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus, with the latter also out for the rest of the year.

It looked like the German’s absence would cost the Gunners’ for much of the game against Leicester City until summer signing Mikel Merino came off the bench as an auxiliary striker and scored a brace to secure his side all three points.

The Spaniard may have to start the next game up top in the current circumstances, but if the manager wants to try something different, he could start one of the team’s most exciting players there for the first time in his senior career.

Arsenal’s striker options

In the absence of Havertz and Jesus, Arteta must find internal solutions to the team’s lack of traditional striker options, and while there are a few, some will be more popular than others.

Perhaps the least popular would be to start Raheem Sterling down the middle, as while he is primarily a winger, he’s played a considerable number of games across his lengthy career as a striker or false nine, and in 28 games there for City, he racked up 14 goals and six assists.

However, as most Arsenal fans will likely attest, the Sterling of a few years ago is not the same one we see today, and after plenty of disappointing performances for the North Londoners this term, we’d reckon this is an option that would not go down particularly well.

Likewise, while Trossard has played as the central striker at times in the last two and a half seasons, moving him to the middle amid the current injury crisis would likely see the Chelsea loanee start on the left, which, again, has yielded poor results so far this season.

So, with all that said, it does feel as if the most optimum strategy for Arteta to employ moving forward would be to start Merino up top, as even though it’s not a position he’s familiar with, he scored two poacher’s goals on the weekend; a perfect header and a lovely finish with his feet.

However, even though starting the Spaniard down the middle seems like the most logical course of action, there is another option Arteta could take.

The Arsenal star Arteta could start up top

The truth of the matter is that while Merino was sensational for Arsenal on the weekend and kept the team in the title race with his brace, the chance of him developing into a goalscoring forward seems incredibly slim.

In contrast, the other star of Saturday’s win, Ethan Nwaneri, could be one of the team’s next great goalscorers.

At least, the manager seems to believe so, telling the press in December that he could develop into a nine in the future.

He might not have played down the middle for the first team this season, but we have already seen just how dangerous he can be in front of goal in the relatively limited minutes he’s received.

For example, in 24 first-team appearances, totalling just 790 minutes, the “special talent,” as dubbed by respected football analyst Ben Mattinson, has scored seven goals and provided one assist.

That means the 17-year-old phenom is averaging a goal involvement every three games, or every 98.75 minutes, which is simply sensational.

Moreover, the Enfield-born dynamo played up top during his time in the academy, making eight appearances there for the U18s, scoring ten goals and providing two assists.

Ultimately, it would likely be sensible to start Merino up top, given his goals at the weekend, but as the games start to come thick and fast over the next couple of months, Arteta could, and maybe should, give Nwaneri the chance to show what he can do as the team’s starting number nine.

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