74 M £ Arsenal Star will not be really elite until he starts playing like Merino

If there was a problem to identify in the attempt ultimately failed by Arsenal to win silverware in 2024/25, it was their lack of objectives.

With Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka missing a heavy period of time in the event of injury during the last stages of the campaign, this meant that for the first time in 101 years, no player has marked double personalities in a league campaign for the Gunners.

These are amazing stuff, this is really the case, and that designs the conviction that Mikel Arteta was able to guide his troops towards a semi-final of the Champions League.

It was not always pretty, but the Northern Londoners found a means and they did it thanks to Mikel Merino, a midfielder more renowned for winning duels and playing a role in breaking the room than finding the back of the net.

Alas, Arteta helped to transform the Spaniard into a force with which it is necessary to count.

Mérino Amazing tripled for Spain

Before Leicester Away last season, the idea that Merinos plays as a fortune center and in front of Emergency had been launched. No one thought it would happen, but the needs had to.

Gabriel Jesus and Havertz were both long -term thanks to injuries and Leandro Trossard looked too light to play the role that the German played so effectively since his arrival from Chelsea.

Trossard is light, it is good with the ball at its feet but it will never exceed a heavy central back to the ball.

As a result, Merino was thrown into the fray. Its impact was remarkable. In this confrontation with Leicester in early February, the former man of the Real Sociedad appeared on the bench with the 0-0 score. The score when he left the field? 2-0 at the arsenal. Merino had marked the two while playing as an attacker.

It was an experience that continued to operate, so much so that Spanish looks more effective when you run the line. He ended the 2024/25 campaign after allowing himself to drop six times in a dozen games in the center. Merino even won Real Madrid in the quarterfinals of the Champions League.

While the summer arrival of Viktor Gyokerre will suffocate the chances that the 29 -year -old appears again in this role, he certainly exercises a decent claim.

Indeed, the midfielder was amazing during the current international break. He put in bag in the 3-0 victory of Spain over Bulgaria last Thursday and went even better in their rout 6-0 of Türkiye on Sunday evening, marking a hat-trick.

While Merino did not play like an attacker on this occasion, his ability to appear in the right place at the right time and attacking the box spoke of memories of players like Frank Lampard and, from the point of view of the Arsenal, Aaron Ramsey, in their prime numbers.

The fact is that the Spanish international is a powerful finisher, perhaps one of the best Arteta at his disposal. The way he won his goals, especially the third, against Turkey, was first -class.

This three -way performance is not only a purple patch. Merino presented throughout 2025 that he knows how to find the back of the net. Some in the colors of Arsenal, including Martin Odegaard, could note.

Why Martin Odegaard must imitate Mikel Merino

When Odegaard signed for Arsenal, initially loaned in January 2021, the Gunners obtained a player who simply needed to find a house.

Signed by Real Madrid when he was just a boy, he grew up in Spain as Wonderkid but had a hard time having really had an impact in the capital, playing only 11 senior games for European giants, failing to score or help.

It is very rare that a pure Wonderkid like Odegaard continues to note, but he certainly did it with Arsenal. He is the club’s captain, he is the man on which Arteta leans to set the tone and direct the team’s press on the field.

Since he moved to northern London, he was brilliant, there has been no doubt about it. In 2022/23, he scored more goals than any other midfielder in the Premier League (15). It was a creative marvel, with an arsenal content creator, Lieutenant Arsenal, noting that his death is “Shades of Mesut Ozil”.

In fact, the Norwegian ranked 74 million pounds sterling was regularly compared to the Grand German during his stay at the Emirates Stadium. Liverpool’s big, John Arne Rise, proclaimed that his compatriot was “a more complete player than Bergkamp and Ozil”.

Odegaard certainly seemed to have had everything during this 2022/23 campaign, but undoubtedly as a lot of line before Arsenal, has had trouble starting since.

The 2024/25 season was the Nadir of his time in the English capital to date. Odegaard fought with an ankle problem and did not seem to trust his body. His shooting became weak and weak, which ends up ending at the end with only six goals, of which only three came up.

It has frustrated many supporters. Time and time, the Norway star would get the ball at the edge of the area and despite the time to refuse to shoot, rather taking the most difficult option to find a pass that made the defense.

Odegaard’s creativity is second to very little in the main divisions of Europe, but to be considered the elite, as being considered one of the best players in his position, a Kevin type of Bruyne, he must start scoring more goals.

He must return to the type of form that we saw in 2022/23 and to do this, he must remove a sheet from the Merino book.

Merino had never been a leading goalscorer before 2025, but he mastered the art of arriving late in the box and going out in one time to return the ball to the house on the edge of the region. Odegaard scored this kind of goal there are two seasons and he looked like one of the best in Europe accordingly.

He needs to find the same level of instinctivity when it comes to finding the net that Merinos currently has. Once colleagues from Sociedad, there is undoubtedly a great level of respect between the two, but the older statesman is certainly the best finisher as it is.

An Odegaard duel monster is not, but that’s not what we ask for here. He will never imitate merino in this regard. However, we know that he can imitate him in the department of objectives; We have already seen it during its beginnings in red and white.

If the 26 -year -old can again rediscover this level of performance, it will not take long before he is recognized among some of the best fields of land attacking in the Premier League.