Right now is a great time to be an Arsenal fan.
Mikel Arteta’s side are four out of four in the Champions League, through to the next round of the League Cup and top of the Premier League.
However, North Londoners still have their problems, such as the increasing number of injuries.
Additionally, Arteta must now do without summer signing Viktor Gyokeres, although the good news is he has a solution as Arsenal’s best finisher since Robin van Persie.
Arsenal’s solutions to Gyokeres injury
With Kai Havertz still out and Gabriel Jesus only just back in first-team training, Arteta can get a little creative with his replacement Gyokeres.
One option could be to move Leandro Trossard into the middle, because, unlike last season, he seems to be returning to his best level.
In fact, the Belgium international has already racked up an impressive tally of three goals and four assists for the team in 13 appearances.
Additionally, although the 30-year-old is primarily a winger, he is no stranger to playing up top, having done so 49 times in his career.
However, if the manager wants to keep Trossard on the right, he could opt for an even bolder choice: placing Ethan Nwaneri up front.
After all, only last season he told the press that the youngster “can play as a right winger and there is another position I think he can play in – number 9”.
Plus, with an impressive nine goals and two assists in just 1,378 minutes last season, the teenager clearly has a hard-to-teach goal-scoring eye.
However, while Trossard and Nwaneri would likely do a good job leading the line for a game, there is another player that Arteta will almost certainly turn to, a player who could be considered Arsenal’s best finisher since Van Persie.
Arsenal’s best finisher
Although he has a few options at his disposal, it seems almost certain that Arteta will choose to play Mikel Merino against Sunderland.
After all, over the last year the Spaniard has made a very strong case for being the club’s best finisher since Van Persie.
That’s not to say he’s the best centre-forward since the Dutchman, because he hasn’t and wouldn’t even claim to be.
However, his finishing quality is superb, and his catalog of utterly outrageous goals proves it.
For example, in his very first match as a striker for the team, against Leicester City last season, he scored an excellent header and another touch into the bottom corner.
Then, at home against Real Madrid in the Champions League, he again scored a sensational goal from a touch, but this time from the edge of the penalty area.
In fact, when you look at the goals he has scored for the club, it becomes clear that he is at his best when he has less time to think and has to finish with just one touch.
Fortunately for him and the rest of the team, he is something of a “magnet in the box”, according to Arsenal writer Adam Keys, and so he often only gets one opportunity to bury a chance.
Ultimately, this may seem hyperbolic, and Arteta won’t want him playing up top for much longer, but it’s hard to deny that Merino currently looks like Arsenal’s best finisher since Van Persie.
