The reasons why Arsenal should not abandon Mikel Merino experiment at Nottingham Forest | OneFootball

Gunners were toothless in attack against West Ham but Arteta should persist with Merino

Merino started as a makeshift striker as Arsenal lost 1-0 to West Ham on Saturday

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Mikel Arteta wanted his players to “suffer for 24-28 hours” after Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to West Ham. Having done that, attention must turn to beating Nottingham Forest on Wednesday to ensure there is still some semblance of a title race.

Liverpool, fuelled by victory over Manchester City, now lead the Gunners by 11 points and are showing no signs of taking their foot off the gas anytime soon.

The biggest priority for Arsenal is getting their toothless attack back firing at Forest.

In fact, Arteta should be minded to resist the urge abandon his experiment and instead persist with Merino up front against Forest.

Merino did not carry a goal threat against West Ham but has shown himself to be best-suited to lead the line of the fit Arsenal players

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Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus are out for the rest of the season, and further injuries to Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli have left Ethan Nwaneri, Leandro Trossard and Raheem Sterling as the only other fit forwards.

None are well suited to playing up front - Trossard having shown that with a very limited display as a false nine against Leicester - whereas Merino is of a stature similar to Havertz’s.

His two goals off the bench saved the day at Leicester and earned him the start against West Ham.

After a smartly-taken header for the opening goal against the Foxes, Merino lurked at the back post to convert Trossard’s cross for the second.

Needless to say, having Havertz (or an even more prolific striker) would do Arsenal the world of good in the coming months as they seek to keep pace with Liverpool, but they do not have such a luxury. Instead, Merino has shown himself to be best-suited among a rather ill-suited bunch of players.

That is despite the view of ex-Arsenal player and Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson, who called Arteta’s use of Merino as a striker “mind-blowing”, but noticeably failed to name an alternative solution himself.

Arsenal had 20 shots to West Ham’s five, but only two each were on target. Their bluntness was not Merino’s fault, though.

On the contrary, he ran the line relatively well, dispossessing James Ward-Prowse in the third minute, winning headers with knockdowns from crosses into the box, and firing just over the bar from Riccardo Calafiori in an attack flagged marginally offside.

Merino, who said he last played as a striker when he was nine, was checking his shoulder constantly and elected to target Aaron Cresswell, the only unnatural centre-back among the West Ham back three.

Arteta’s side risk falling away much faster if he plays Trossard as a false nine for the rest of the season. That is a very complex position, and one that would need a pre-season to get right - a luxury they do not have.

“Because of what happened against Leicester with Merino coming on and scoring two, we guessed that he would start,” West Ham manager Graham Potter said afterwards.

“If you look at how he attacks the box and what he does, he’s incredible. To get on the shoulder of defenders and timing his runs into the box, he’s very dangerous.”

Of course, there was room was improvement. Merino might have done better on the volley when he stretched to reach Thomas Partey’s hoicked ball into the box, and did not gamble on a Trossard cross which might have offered him a tap-in given that Max Kilman air-kicked his clearance.

Still, in the context of an afternoon when Arsenal failed to score and never once looked like finding the net, Merino pressed intently and fought hard. Arsenal have trained with various players leading the line in recent weeks; Merino should be trusted to keep doing so.

It is up to the players around him to create better openings and help make it work.