Mikel Merino walked off against Brentford with a goal, an assist and another man-of-the-match performance in a role he was never signed to play. His header opened the scoring. His clipped ball released Bukayo Saka to kill the game in stoppage time. The result pushed Arsenal five points clear and stretched their unbeaten run to 18 matches in all competitions.
On paper, Merino is the stopgap. The club spent roughly $80 million on Viktor Gyökeres last summer to be the center forward and still has Gabriel Jesus working his way back from major knee surgery. In reality, the player who currently makes the 4-3-3 tick from the top of the pitch is the 29-year-old Spaniard wearing the midfielder’s number.
Among supporters the arguments are familiar. Some see a “proper striker” in Gyökeres who should be trusted through the growing pains. Others look at Merino’s 2025 numbers and wonder why Arsenal would mess with the chemistry. Depending on which corner of the fanbase you listen to, Arsenal’s best center forward is either being wasted in midfield or watching from the bench on a huge contract.
This is exactly the tension we saw coming in our earlier piece, Arteta faces pivotal season after third straight runner-up finish. A squad built with more than a billion dollars of transfer spending was always going to reach a point where selection decisions became political as well as tactical.
Into that noise walks Adrian Clarke, and his verdict has been decisive.
Clarke is not just another talking head. He came through Arsenal’s academy, made his debut in 1994 and later carved out a career across the English pyramid before moving into the media. Today he works as a tactics analyst and commentator for the Premier League, Arsenal’s official channels and talkSPORT, and is the voice fronting the Inside Gooners show that sits directly in the club’s conversation every week.
So when he looks at Merino’s run at center forward and says, “Mikel Merino at the moment, for me, is undroppable. This guy is playing phenomenally well,” it lands differently. Clarke has also called him “one of the most intelligent footballers to have worn the Arsenal badge in a long time,” the kind of player who “does such a good job for the team, the way he pulls off defenders and links play… but he’s also a terrific finisher as well.”
A false nine who suits Arteta’s 4-3-3
The numbers back up what the eyes and the pundits are saying. Since the start of 2025 Merino has stacked up close to thirty goal contributions for club and country, many of them in matches where he has been asked to lead the line. Seven of his Premier League goals this calendar year have come with his head, and data from Opta shows that around seventy percent of his league goals are headers, a ratio only one non-defender in the competition’s history can better.
Arsenal’s shape explains why this works. Out of possession they look like a 4-3-3. With the ball they become a 3-2-5, with Merino stepping off the center backs to operate between the lines. He gives Declan Rice and the left-sided eight an extra passing lane, creates overloads next to Martin Ødegaard or Eberechi Eze, and then arrives late to attack Saka’s and Ben White’s deliveries.
Clarke has praised that adaptability more than once. “He’s one of the smartest footballers I’ve seen play for Arsenal in recent seasons. So intelligent, no matter where you put him, he just adjusts, he adapts to the role.” At the same time, Clarke is already redefining him positionally: “If someone was to say, ‘What is Merino’s best position?’ I’m calling it now, Mikel Merino is a false nine. I think he’s better there than in midfield.”
That intelligence and timing have become part of the club’s story this year. In a team that has historically celebrated classic center forwards, a quick glance at Arsenal’s best strikers of all-time shows how unusual it is to see a midfielder-turned-forward carrying so much of the scoring load. Merino is not Thierry Henry gliding in from the left or Ian Wright running off the shoulder. He is a six-foot-two false nine who spends long stretches directing traffic before suddenly attacking the penalty spot.
Gyökeres, by contrast, offers a much straighter line to goal. His early months have been uneven, but he still has six goals in sixteen games in all competitions and four in the league, a return that would look perfectly respectable if it did not live next to his transfer fee and the reality that many of those goals have come against the league’s strugglers. The Swede is more of a classic penalty-box striker, thriving on cutbacks and crosses, which makes him valuable in games where Arsenal are slinging in thirty balls from wide and need someone to live between the posts.
Then there is Jesus. Arteta has leaned on him as a pressing leader and connector ever since he arrived from Manchester City. The Brazilian is edging back toward full fitness after serious knee trouble, and the coaching staff clearly see him as someone who can start in all three roles across the front.
Put all of that together and you can see why December feels like a hinge. Arsenal have already kicked off the month by beating Brentford. Still to come are an away trip to Aston Villa, a Champions League night in Bruges, home games against Wolves, Crystal Palace and Brighton, and another meeting with Villa at the Emirates wrapped around a visit to Everton. It is a run that will define how they enter 2026 in the league, in Europe and in the domestic cups.
The smart play is not to tear up what has worked to this point. Merino should remain the default nine in the biggest league and Champions League fixtures, especially while Rice’s fitness is uncertain and Arsenal need as many problem-solvers as possible high up the pitch. Jesus can rotate in from the left or the right when Arsenal want an even more aggressive press. Gyökeres can be the specialist, used from the start when the plan is clearly to bombard the box or unleashed from the bench when tired defenders no longer want to run with him into the channels.
That approach also mirrors how the conversation among supporters has shifted. Early on there was a sense that Merino was simply keeping the seat warm for the “real” striker. Now the jokes cut the other way, about the record signing learning how to play the role by watching the midfielder who refuses to stop scoring. There is still anxiety about relying on a “makeshift nine,” but much of it is now framed as fear of injury rather than doubt about his quality.
Clarke’s comments bring that mood into focus. “Merino is turning into one of those under-the-radar signings that you think, ‘Thank goodness for that! If we hadn’t signed him, what would we have done this season, and the back-end of last season?’” he said on Inside Gooners, adding that “at the moment, you can’t leave him out of the side. I think [Viktor] Gyokeres has got to wait.”
For a manager who preaches that the hierarchy is decided on the grass, those are hard words to ignore. Arteta may choose to be flexible with his personnel as the games pile up. The structure, though, should remain the same. Until something breaks the spell, the most logical version of Arsenal’s 4-3-3 has Mikel Merino at its tip, directing traffic and attacking crosses, while an $80 million striker and a fully fit Gabriel Jesus circle around him looking for their moments.
