Arteta must now unleash Arsenal’s “best finisher” at CF

While the title race is clearly all over, there’s still plenty for Arsenal to play for between now and the end of the season.

On Wednesday, the Gunners reached the Champions League quarter-finals for only the second time since 2010swatting aside PSV Eindhoven 9-3 on aggregate, now set to face record 15-time winners Real Madrid next month.

Meantime, in the Premier Leaguehaving failed to win any of their last three, Mikel Arteta‘s team find themselves 15 points adrift of champions-elect Liverpool, but have to be careful, because they could relinquish second spot, potentially tumbling down the table if form does not improve.

On Sunday, Chelsea visit North London, with the Gunners seeking a third successive home win over their fierce rivals for the first time since 1994and Arteta should reconfigure his attack ahead of this game, unleashing Arsenal’s clinical forward.

The end of Mikel Merino’s time as a makeshift striker

With Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus all sidelined ahead of February’s trip to Leicester, in need of a goal with the match goalless, Arteta threw on Mikel Merino as a centre-forward at the King Power, and even he couldn’t have forecast how this would go, the Spaniard scoring twice in six minutes to snatch victory.

Ever since, Merino has started all five fixtures as the centre-forward, but it’s no coincidence that Arsenal have only managed to win one of these five, with Adam Bate of Sky Sports highlighting his serious ‘limitations’ as a striker, while Michael Cox of the Athletic outlines how he looks lost leading the line, describing his performances as ‘predictable’.

This shouldn’t be too surprising, considering Merino himself has admitted he hasn’t played as a striker since he was seven years old, adding “I am trying to adapt. I am trying to do things the best way possible”.

Nevertheless, as Arsenal’s attacking injury woes slowly begin to ease, Arteta should put this experiment, which’s certainly yielded mixed results, to one side and unleash the best finisher at the club against Chelsea on Sunday.

Arsenal’s best option at centre-forward

Last Sunday at Old Trafford, during a rather underwhelming 1-1 draw with Manchester United, Gabriel Theminies made his eagerly-anticipated return, following over a month on the sidelines due to a hamstring injury suffered against Newcastle.

He got a half-an-hour run-out last weekend, before getting 11 more minutes into his legs on Wednesday, and his return will allow Arteta to reconfigure his forward line, deploying Martinelli on the left, with Leandro Trossard the best option through the middle.

Since arriving from Brighton a little over two years ago, the Belgian has racked up 24 goals and 19 assists in 110 appearances for the Gunners, thereby averaging a goal involvement every 137 minutes; last season in the Premier League, he ranked 8th for goals-per-90.

Ian Wright, once Arsenal’s record-goalscorer of all-time, described Trossard as “clinical”, believing him to be the “best finisher” in the current squad, and he has excelled as the central striker in the past, with Arteta describing him as “really good” in that position, adding he thrives “in small spaces.”

When asked what he believed to be his best position, Trossard himself said “I don’t really mind playing all of those positions up top… I always try to be in the box in good positions”.

Speaking on the Arseblog podcastAndrew Mangan and Lewis Ambrose both agreed they’d prefer to see Martinelli trialled through the middle, thereby keeping Trossard on the left, so let’s compare the duo to work out which option would work better.

Since the start of last season, Trossard and Martinelli have played nigh-on an identical number of minutes, the Brazilian racking up just 223 more, a remarkably small difference over such a large sample size, making comparing the two very interesting.

Martinelli is much more of a dribbler, attempting nearly twice as many take-ons and progressive carries, while Trossard has scored more goals, accumulated more shots and has a significantly higher goals – xG figure, finishing joint-ninth in the entire Premier League for this metric last season, and first amongst Arsenal players.

These statistics underline why Trossard, stylistically, fits better through the middle than Martinelli, both against Chelsea on Sunday, but also going forward, with the huge tie against Real Madrid firmly in mind.

So, somewhat out of nowhere, with Ethan Nwaneri continuing to impress, labelled a ‘precocious talent’ and a ‘superstar’ By Adrian Clarke, while Bukayo Saka is on his way back from injuryArsenal’s front three has gone from makeshift and depleted to potentially frightening again.