Mikel Merino joined Arsenal this summer for a reported €32million from Real Sociedad. The midfielder only made his first appearance for the gunners on Tuesday night.
Merino got injured in training after a collision with Gabriel. The Spaniard was ruled out since the end of August and only returned to training this week.
Merino came on after 64 minutes in Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain. He had an impressive cameo as he won four out of his six duels on the pitch, making three tackles.
The Gunners are in a good mood after beating Leicester on the weekend and following it up with a win against the Ligue 1 holders in the Champions League. Arsenal star Bukayo Saka was vocal after the game, and believes this may be the club’s year:
“I don’t want to put too much pressure on us but I do think this is the year.
“I think we’ve been close the last two years, and we’re getting close, but yeah this will hopefully be the year.”
Mikel Merino reveals Arsenal’s training methods
The Spanish midfielder has only been in training for a few weeks in England, but Merino says what he has seen at Arsenal is different from anything else he has seen in his career.
“It’s something that is amazing, to be honest with you,”
“They do some things that I have never seen in my career. The methods they use are completely new to me, so obviously it takes some time to adapt.
“I don’t want to tell everything that we do, but there is no rest between one moment and the other. They are always challenging you mentally with different stimuluses. It makes you always all the time aware of what is happening around you.
“I think that when you get it, you are in a different level because they challenge you every single day – not only physically, but mentally. That makes you be sharp mentally and that’s what you are going to find out in the game.”
Arsenal will be boosted by the return of Merino, with the club having spent the past few weeks with only Declan Rice, Jorginho and Thomas Partey as midfield options.
Arteta pleased with return of Spaniard
Mikel Arteta was impressed with Merino’s cameo in the PSG game. The Gunners boss praised how sharp the midfielder was despite only training for a few days:
“Really good, because he joined us and first session he got injured. He had only one session with us, he was ready, he was really willing to be part of this today and obviously with the injuries and changes we had to make, we believe that he was the player that could help us in that phase.”
