On a horrendous afternoon for Raheem Sterling, makeshift striker Mikel Merino was the hero for Arsenal at Leicester City.
Raheem Sterling had the opportunity to prove Enzo Maresca and Gareth Southgate wrong at Arsenal, giving Mikel Arteta’s side some much-needed attacking depth in their bid for Premier League and Champions League glory.
It has been a disastrous move for the former Manchester City winger but Arteta reasonably felt he had little choice but to start him here with Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Kai Havertz all injured. Little choice, but not it turned out, no choice.
After Sterling’s performance against Leicester City on Saturday, an unknown youth player clearly can’t do any worse, though an unlikely solution emerged from the bench at the King Power.
Havertz’s hamstring injury suffered in Dubai is a huge blow to Arsenal’s league title quest and does feel very Typical Arsenal considering Arteta did not sign a new forward in the January transfer window, which closed the week before the German was ruled out for the rest of the season.
Injuries meant Sterling would start on the left, Leandro Trossard through the middle and Ethan Nwaneri on the right. The majority of Sterling’s appearances have come on the right when he made his name on the left and given the opportunity to play there against Leicester, there was some optimism that he could thrive.
Unfortunately for Sterling and Arsenal, it was a disasterclass from start to finish and the fact his replacement and natural midfielder Mikel Merino went up front – such is the injury crisis – and scored a match-winning brace rubbed salt in the wounds.
He was offside twice in the first half, failed all three of his dribble attempts, had his only shot blocked, was dispossessed once and came off in the 69th minute for the match winner.
It felt like an opportunity for Sterling against Leicester but even if after a horrible performance, it’s not like Arteta has the depth to not use him at all. It will either be Nathan Butler-Oyedeji, Kieran Tierney, Riccardo Calafiori on the left instead or Trossard there and Merino as a No. 9, which seems the most likely outcome now.
Confidence is clearly on the floor and a even a goal off his arse would be enough to lift it. He might not get that chance now after his replacement became Arsenal’s hero against Leicester.
Nwaneri’s performance hardly shines Sterling in a positive light as well. He is 13 years younger and is taking matches by the scruff of the neck week in, week out. He was the Gunners’ best player on the day, skiffing the bar and rattling the post before assisting Merino’s first.
Arsenal are now four points behind Liverpool thanks to their unlikely striker solution, whose two finishes were converted like a cultured striker and left Mads Hermansen helpless in the Foxes goal.
Arteta’s super sub does shift the narrative on a difficult afternoon for Sterling and Arsenal, really.
Up until the 69th-minute substitution, the Gunners were abject, uninspired, bereft of attacking ideas and had a distinct lack of creativity coming from midfield.
Martin Odegaard has struggled without his mate Bukayo Saka on the right flank and was pretty useless in the opening half before picking it up in the second period with some tidy through balls and link-up play with Nwaneri and Trossard. Declan Rice put in a standard energetic performance next to Odegaard, getting his long legs in places others can’t to retain possession, win it back and protect his back five.
Leicester actually looked pretty dangerous on the break but David Raya was never unsettled in the Arsenal goal, though Hermansen had very little to do besides picking the ball out of his net twice.
The performance was concerning but winning without playing well makes it fine, especially considering the injury to Havertz.
Arteta has been forced to experiment at a difficult stage of the season, with Premier League and Champions League glory the target. The Spaniard will be delighted his Plan B worked a treat after Trossard and especially Sterling struggled from the start. It is now surely Plan A.
Havertz was signed as a midfielder and became a prolific striker in the second half of last season and there is no reason why Merino can’t be that guy for Arteta in the title run-in this year – the brace against Leicester proved as much.
Sterling, meanwhile, will be relieved his team managed to get the three points having inadvertently done his best to ensure that would not happen, but from a personal point of view, he will be extremely disappointed. That was a performance Arsenal flops Andrey Santos, Park Chu-young and Marouane Chamakh will have been proud of.
Merino should be the man up top moving forward after Arteta stumbled upon his very own Marouane Fellaini on another chastening afternoon for poor Raheem.
