Mika Biereth: Arsenal sent another painful reminder by goal machine they let go | OneFootball

Prolific Danish striker has now scored three hat-tricks since joining Monaco from Sturm Graz in January

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The Denmark Under-21 international swapped Sturm Graz for the Principality in a transfer worth an initial £10.8million in January, just six months after leaving Arsenal on a permanent basis for around £4m after an impressive half-season on loan in Austria that followed his early recall from Scottish club Motherwell and time in the Netherlands with RKC Waalwijk.

Biereth has made a simply astonishing beginning to his Monaco career as he produced yet another hat-trick in Friday night’s 3-0 victory over Reims that sent Adi Hutter’s side above Lille up to fourth in Ligue 1 and just three points adrift of second-place Marseille.

The 22-year-old was once again the talk of the Stade Louis II, where he is team-mates with another former Arsenal striker in Folarin Balogun, side-footing home Monaco’s opener from a Caio Henrique cross at the back post after 34 minutes before just five minutes later volleying in from inside the penalty area.

He then dispatched a tap-in after the break to set the seal on another memorable treble, his third in his first nine games for his new club and his first seven appearances in Ligue 1 having done likewise in the 4-2 win over Auxerre on February 1 and in the 7-1 demolition of Nantes two weeks later.

Biereth’s three hat-tricks have come in his first four home league games for Monaco, having also notched on his first home outing in the 3-2 win over Rennes on January 25.

He has 10 goals in his first nine appearances overall for Monaco to go along with two assists, making Biereth the top scorer in Europe’s top five leagues so far in 2025 as he became the first player to score three hat-tricks in his first seven Ligue 1 games for 70 years, per Stats Foot and Get French Football News.

Biereth had previously netted 25 goals in 47 total appearances for Sturm Graz, whom he helped to win an Austrian Bundesliga and Austrian Cup double last season.

He also had six in 15 for Motherwell and two in 13 for RKC Waalwijk, but never managed a senior appearance for Arsenal despite having also been prolific for Fulham at youth level before joining their London rivals in 2021 and going on to be an unused substitute for the first team on a handful of occasions in the 2021/22 season amid an impressive run with the Under-23s.

The £4m deal to sell Biereth to Sturm Graz was a good one for Arsenal at the time as they included a sell-on fee that later banked them another seven-figure sum believed to be £2m, but they can also now be forgiven for wondering what might have been had they held on to him amidst an ongoing attacking injury crisis that has seen strikers Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus ruled out for the rest of the season and the likes of Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli unlikely to be back before the March international break.

Arsenal have been deploying midfielder Mikel Merino as a false nine to initially positive effect of late, but a combination of injuries and a failure to strengthen in January has led to the collapse of their Premier League title bid with defeat to West Ham and a goalless draw with Nottingham Forest seeing them fall 13 points behind leaders Liverpool with a game in hand but only 11 left to play.

Biereth and fellow Danish youth international Chido Obi might both be featuring for Arsenal’s first team now had they stayed put, the latter having rejected the chance to stay with the Gunners last year after an astonishing scoring run for the academy as he joined rivals Manchester United instead.

He has continued his incredible form for United at youth level, with a selection crisis at Old Trafford leading to his recent promotion to the first-team set up under Ruben Amorim and his first two senior appearances off the bench against Tottenham and Everton.

Obi’s swift rise to senior United contention saw him miss out on a reunion with former club Arsenal in the FA Youth Cup quarter-finals on Friday night, with an extra-time winner from Bendito Mantato securing a thrilling 3-2 victory for the Red Devils’ U18s and booking a last-four clash with either Aston Villa or Plymouth despite a remarkable performance from 15-year-old Gunners midfield sensation Max Dowman.