£74m Arsenal star won’t be truly elite until he starts playing like Merino

If there was one problem to identify in Arsenal’s ultimately failed attempt to win silverware in 2024/25 it was their lack of goals.

With Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka missing a hefty period of time through injury during the latter stages of the campaign, it meant that for the first time in 101 years, no player scored double figures in a league campaign for the Gunners.

It’s astonishing stuff, it really is, and it beggars belief that Mikel Arteta was able to guide his troops to a Champions League semi-final.

It wasn’t always pretty but the north Londoners found a way and they did so courtesy of Mikel Merino, a midfielder more renowned for winning duels and playing a role in breaking up the play than finding the back of the net.

Alas, Arteta has helped transform the Spaniard into a force to be reckoned with.

Merino’s stunning hat-trick for Spain

Before Leicester away last season, the idea of Merino playing as a makeshift and emergency centre forward had been floated. No one believed it would happen, but needs must.

Gabriel Jesus and Havertz were both out long-term through injury and Leandro Trossard looked too lightweight to play the role the German has performed so effectively since arriving from Chelsea.

Trossard is slight, he’s good with the ball at his feet but he’s never going to outmuscle a hefty centre-back to the ball.

As a result, Merino was thrown into the fray. His impact was remarkable. In that clash with Leicester back in early February, the former Real Sociedad man appeared from the bench with the score 0-0. The score when he left the field? 2-0 to the Arsenal. Merino had scored both while playing as a striker.

It was an experiment that continued to work, so much so that the Spaniard actually looked more effective when leading the line. He ended the 2024/25 campaign having netted six times in a dozen games as centre-forward. Merino even bagged against Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals.

While the summer arrival of Viktor Gyokeres will dampen the chances of the 29-year-old appearing in that role again, he’s certainly staking a decent claim for it.

Indeed, the midfielder has been in stunning form over the current international break. He bagged in Spain’s 3-0 win over Bulgaria last Thursday and went even better in their 6-0 rout of Turkey on Sunday evening, scoring a hat-trick.

While Merino wasn’t playing as a forward on this occasion, his ability to pop up in the right place at the right time and attack the box evoked memories of players like Frank Lampard and, from an Arsenal perspective, Aaron Ramsey, in their primes.

The fact of the matter is that the Spain international is a mighty fine finisher, perhaps one of the best Arteta has at his disposal. The way he took his goals, particularly the third, against Turkey, was first-class.

That three-goal performance isn’t just a purple patch. Merino has showcased throughout 2025 that he knows how to find the back of the net. A few in Arsenal colours, including Martin Odegaard, could take note.

Why Martin Odegaard needs to emulate Mikel Merino

When Odegaard signed for Arsenal, initially on loan in January 2021, the Gunners were getting a player who simply needed to find a home.

Signed by Real Madrid when he was merely a boy, he grew up in Spain as a wonderkid but struggled to ever really make an impact in the capital, playing just 11 senior matches for the European giants, failing to score or assist.

It’s very rare that a pure wonderkid such as Odegaard does go on to make the grade but he’s certainly done that with Arsenal. He’s the club captain, he’s the man Arteta relies on to set the tone and lead the team’s press on the field.

Since moving to north London, he’s been brilliant, there’s no doubt about that. Back in 2022/23, he scored more goals than any other midfielder in the Premier League (15). He’s been a creative marvel, with prominent Arsenal content creator, LT Arsenal, noting that his passing is “shades of Mesut Ozil.”

In fact, the £74m-rated Norwegian has regularly been compared to the great German during his time at the Emirates Stadium. Liverpool great John Arne Riise once proclaimed that his fellow countryman was “a more complete player than Bergkamp and Ozil.”

Odegaard certainly looked like he had it all during that 2022/23 campaign, but arguably like a lot of Arsenal’s forward line, has struggled to kick on since.

The 2024/25 season was the nadir of his time in the English capital to date. Odegaard struggled with an ankle problem and didn’t look as though he trusted his body fully. His shooting became weak and feeble, ultimately ending the term with just six goals, only three of which came in the top-flight.

It frustrated many a supporter. Time and time the Norway star would get the ball on the edge of the area and despite having plenty of time would refuse to shoot, instead taking the more challenging option of finding a defence-splitting pass.

Odegaard’s creativity is second to very few in Europe’s top divisions but to be considered elite, to be considered one of the best players in his position, a Kevin De Bruyne type, he needs to start scoring more goals.

He needs to get back to the type of form we saw in 2022/23 and to do that, he needs to take a leaf out of Merino’s book.

Merino had never been a prominent scorer until 2025 but he’s mastered the art of arriving late in the box and emerging in the nick of time to sweep the ball home from the edge of the area. Odegaard trademarked that sort of goal two seasons ago and he looked like one of the best in Europe as a result.

He needs to find the same level of instinctiveness when it comes to finding the net that Merino currently has. Once colleagues at Sociedad, there is no doubt a great level of respect between the two but the elder statesman is certainly the better finisher as it stands.

A duel monster Odegaard is not, but that’s not what we’re asking of him here. He’s never going to emulate Merino in that regard. However, we know he can emulate him in the goals department; we’ve already seen that during his early days in red and white.

If the 26-year-old can rediscover that level of performance again, then it won’t be long before he’s being recognised among some of the finest attacking midfielders to play in the Premier League.