Morning.
Welcome to a brand new week, and we’re starting with Mikel Merino who was on fire last night as Spain ran out 6-0 winners in Turkey. The Arsenal midfielder scored a really nice hat-trick to make it 6 goals in his last 7 international appearances, a pretty hot streak for someone who had scored just twice in his previous 30. By the way, notorious fraud Lamine Yamal could only muster up one meagre assist. Levels, etc etc.
Check out the finishes here, that’s a guy who has found a confidence in the attacking third that was probably not there before he had the run up front for us last season. Not just the way he finishes either, but the movement and positioning is very good – not helped by some iffy defending, but he’s in the right place at the right time, and you can’t argue with that.
With Kai Havertz sidelined, and a lot of football to play over the coming weeks, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see him get some minutes as a centre-forward. The EFL Cup game against Port Vale, for example, seems like a good way to ensure you can rotate your squad, take some of the pressure off Gyokeres in a week which sees that game sandwiched between Man City at home and Newcastle away, and Merino will certainly be a candidate to start up front in that one. I’m not saying it’s my preferred option, just one I think we know Mikel Arteta might consider.
I think my actual preferred option for that game would be Gabriel Martinelli, by the way. I know he’s very much in the spotlight after an underwhelming pre-season, and an indifferent start to the new campaign, but I just wonder if it might be a useful experiment in a game against lower league opposition. First, it might be good for his confidence if he can grab a goal, and regardless of what his medium-long term future holds, if he can rediscover some of that and a little bit of form then it’d be beneficial all round.
Secondly, as Lewis astutely pointed out in one of our Patreon podcasts, there’s some similarity between Martinelli and Gyokeres in terms of how they play the centre-forward role. They’re not hold up guys really, both would do best with the ball going in behind so they can run directly towards goal. That’s what the Swede likes best, and it’s something that Arsenal as a team are trying to develop towards. We’re still coming to terms with a different style, so maybe as a way of continuing that, Martinelli would be an interesting choice.
The question of what he ends up doing with the ball when he does get it in those situations is a different one, of course. Right now I don’t feel particularly confident that he can be decisive in the final third because he looks like a player who is second guessing himself all the time. There’s clearly a lack of confidence and belief, because we know he is capable of better than we’ve seen of late. Some argue that the things which previous seemed instinctive to him have been coached out of him, but I think it’s far more about confidence than coaching.
Anyway, we’ll wait and see what Arteta does when it comes to picking his team for that cup game, but there’s not a lot of youth on the cusp of the senior squad, so it’s going to be a heavily rotated ‘first team’ for the most part, and Martinelli up front could be something he goes with. Especially if Merino is needed in midfield to give someone like Declan Rice a rest, for example.
Elsewhere, Leandro Trossard played just over an hour for Belgium as they beat Kazakhstan 6-0, but didn’t get on the scoresheet or provide an assist in that time. Hopefully those are useful minutes for his fitness though. And in Lithuania Timber got a goal as the Netherlands won 3-2, but it was Quentin Timber, Jurrien’s twin brother. The Arsenal man came on for the last half hour or so, slotting in at centre-half to replace Stefan de Vrij.
Tonight, Sweden have a World Cup qualifier against Kosovo, Riccardo Calafiori’s Italy face Israel, and Ethan Nwaneri could be in action for England U21s against Kazakhstan. Let’s hope for successful and healthy nights for all of them.
Right, I’ll leave it there for this morning. We’ll have an Arsecast Extra for you later, but we’re not recording until mid-afternoon. We’ve already put out the call for questions on BlueSky @gunnerblog.bsky.social and @arseblog.com with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re an Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server.
Pod should be out around 5pm or so. Until then, have a good one.
