Arsenal: What Mikel Arteta noticed about Mikel Merino goal as he praises 'incredible' makeshift striker | OneFootball

Mikel Merino has been tasked with solving Arsenal’s attacking crisis - despite never previously playing as a centre-forward

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Mikel Arteta hailed Arsenal’s makeshift striking hero Mikel Merino, claiming: “It’s incredible that he’s winning games for us”.

The Spaniard was signed as a midfielder last summer, but has been playing as a centre-forward ever since Kai Havertz followed Gabriel Jesus in being ruled out for the season through injury last month.

“We know that it is the emergency situation that we’re in at the moment,” Arteta said. “But the way he’s approaching it is incredible. He wants to understand everything, he wants to learn from it, he’s vey critical of himself all the time.

“The reality is that he’s winning football matches for us which is incredible because he’s never played in that position before in his life.

“It’s the value of it. It’s a big match and at the end of it you win the game because of that goal. He had another big chance that he almost put in the net. We’re very happy with his contribution.”

Delighted: Mikel Arteta celebrates Arsenal’s win over Chelsea

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Merino’s goal also marked a welcome restoration of Arsenal’s set-piece threat.

The Gunners were renowned for their potency from free-kicks and corners during the first-half of the season and were expected to rely even more heavily on them while without Havertz, Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka.

However, Arteta’s side had gone seven league games without a set-piece goal prior to Sunday, with their last coming in the north London derby win over Tottenham on January 15.

“We worked on something similar, but with that finish, no. It was a different kind of finish planned,” Arteta said of Merino’s looping near-post header. “We’re very happy because that will generate belief in the team again, even in the stadium, the crowd, that we can score [from set-pieces]. It’s something we’ve been missing when we were so prolific on that.”