Bukayo Saka has made his Arsenal feelings perfectly clear after Mikel Merino bagged a brace off the bench to beat Leicester City. Saka was joined by Gabriel Martinelli and Kai Havertz on the injury list in the last few weeks as both attackers suffered hamstring injuries.
Raheem Sterling, Leandro Trossard and Ethan Nwaneri were unsurprisingly deployed as the front three with the latter impressing. It took 82 minutes for the Gunners to find a breakthrough however, with Merino heading home Nwaneri’s deep cross.
The Spaniard then grabbed his second when he diverted a delightful Leandro Trossard ball past Mads Hermansen. Arteta was unsurprisingly asked about the match-winner in his post-match press conference with the Arsenal boss commenting on the unlikely solution that sealed the win.
“Yes, we’re going to have to share that and we know that,” he said in a press conference. “We’re going to have various contexts, sometimes we’re going to have to make a sub because a player is not performing or because the opposition is doing something else or because he’s got a yellow card or he’s fatigued.
“And that’s going to restrict what we can do, really, in terms of the personnel. But we have prepared for different scenarios. Then those scenarios have to work. Hopefully, they will work as good as Mikel worked today.” While Havertz is out for the remainder of the season, Arsenal are hopeful of having Martinelli and Saka back in February.
The latter has not featured since the 5-1 win over Crystal Palace back in December where he tore his hamstring. Saka has quite clearly kept a close eye on Arsenal in that time having been spotted at home games against Tottenham and Aston Villa.
While he may not have been at the King Power Stadium on Saturday, Saka was likely watching the game and subsequently sent a clear Arsenal message. Reposting Arsenal’s full-time graphic onto his Instagram story, Saka wrote: “Mikel Merinoooooooooo [music note and heart eyes emoji].”
Though Saka and Martinelli could be back this time next month, Merino could continue to be deployed up top with Havertz and Gabriel Jesus out for the foreseeable future. With that in mind, those three could soon be combining with those precise Saka crosses, exactly like the one Nwaneri delivered on Saturday, perfect for Merino.
