Morning all.

Let’s begin with some fascinating stuff from Mikel Merino who made his Arsenal debut, finally, within the 2-0 win over PSG on Tuesday night. As we all know, his late arrival in the summertime window was compounded by selecting up a shoulder damage (damaged scapula) in his first coaching session. That meant a spell on sidelines when he was trying to settle in shortly and contribute on the pitch.

Mikel Arteta tried to look on the brilliant facet when that information broke, saying it might enable the Spanish worldwide a while to settle in, and to know the the way in which issues labored at Arsenal. To me it felt just a bit like looking for a silver lining when there actually wasn’t one, as a result of signing a 28 yr previous who has expertise in Spain, Germany, England and at worldwide stage normally means they’ve skilled most of what the sport has to supply.

Effectively, it seems Arteta was proper. Merino is a fast examine it appears, suggesting that despite the fact that he didn’t play till the opposite evening, he’s a greater participant than he was 4 weeks in the past. Which is sort of the factor to say. He continued:

Arsenal do some issues that I’ve by no means seen in my profession. The strategies they use are fully new to me. So clearly it takes a while to adapt. However on the similar time, I believe whenever you get it, you’re in a special stage as a result of they problem you each single day, not solely bodily, however mentally.

I believed it was fascinating, if pretty apparent, that when he got here on he tucked in alongside Declan Rice who moved to the area that Thomas Partey vacated. They mainly shielded the again 4 as PSG tried (and failed) to interrupt us down, which is sensible within the context of that recreation. I’m extra curious to see what his position is likely to be in a fixture like this weekend’s recreation, for instance.

I don’t essentially anticipate him to start out in opposition to Southampton, however in that form of recreation the place we’re anticipated to win, I believe we’ll see him deployed additional ahead. Maybe in a extra ‘Xhaka’ place, if that is sensible, however with the power to drop in and defend and win duels if required. One other level to make is that including one other 6’+ man to our facet makes us a good greater bodily deal with. At one level within the first half we had a set-piece and the dimensions differential between us and PSG was so apparent. I’m trying ahead to seeing extra of what Merino can convey.

The opposite factor I wished to debate this morning was Gabriel Jesus, and my rising concern about his end-product. It’s important to return 20 Arsenal appearances for his final aim – which got here in a 2-1 win over Nottingham Forest on January thirtieth. It was a very good evening for him, he scored and offered the help for Bukayo Saka to attain our second, however since then he’s struggled to seek out the again of the online.

There have been three assists in that point (all within the final marketing campaign, together with one in opposition to Bayern Munich), however up to now this season he has appeared a great distance off the extent we’d like. I had excessive hopes for him too. He obtained a correct pre-season beneath his belt having struggled on and off with damage ever since that World Cup knee subject he suffered, and his versatility throughout the front-line was one thing I felt we might simply lean into it. He can play on both flank and, as we noticed in that scintillating spell after his arrival from Man Metropolis, he can play up entrance too.

Ending and taking his possibilities was all the time a difficulty, however in the meanwhile he seems like somebody bereft of confidence, whose resolution making isn’t the place it must be. If there’s a easy possibility, an advanced possibility, and close to inconceivable possibility, it looks like he goes for the latter each time. On Tuesday, there was a second when the ball got here to him simply contained in the field, a fast cross would have set-up a very good probability for Saka on his left foot, as a substitute he tried to twist inside and beat a few defenders. He didn’t beat them – though in his try the ball squirted to Saka who performed a primary time cross for Gabriel Martinelli to have a shot on track. Easy possibility so usually = risk.

Final weekend, as we tried to interrupt down Leicester’s cussed resistance, Jesus solely obtained off the bench when the personal aim had gone in and it was 3-2. That felt instructive about his latest kind. Even then, regardless of involvement within the fourth aim, he might have made a faster resolution to play in both Raheem Sterling or Kai Havertz, and obtained a bit lucky that his comparatively tame shot was deflected off the German by a Leicester defender to seal all three factors.

Simply to be clear, I don’t anticipate Gabriel Jesus to be a prolific goalscorer, that’s by no means been who he’s, and at 27 I don’t suppose it’s one thing he’s going to blossom into at this level. Nonetheless, I don’t suppose it’s unreasonable to anticipate him to be a man able to scoring 10-12 objectives throughout all competitions in the course of the course of a season. It’s troublesome whenever you’re not beginning recurrently, however that’s a consequence of each his kind and the truth that different gamers have taken their possibilities and made themselves nearly un-droppable.

Maybe he’s low on confidence, however when that occurs it’s necessary to maintain issues easy to rebuild it. He has high quality, we’ve all seen it, but it surely’s nowhere to be discovered in the meanwhile. Arteta’s religion in him has clearly taken a success too. It’s a fear, however hopefully one thing he can work on over the approaching weeks, as a result of there’s a lot soccer to play we’re going to want all people to contribute sooner or later.

Proper, I’ll go away it there for now, have a very good one.