Arteta on his Merino options against West Ham

Mikel Merino was the talk of the town following last weekend’s 2-0 win away to Leicester City.

He came on in the 69th minute at King Power Stadium before heading in our opening goal and tapping home the second. After the game, Merino - who is typically deployed in midfield - said he’d never played up front in his career before, not that it looked that way!

Naturally, the question on the lips of reporters at Mikel Arteta’s pre-West Ham United press conference on Friday was whether we’d see more of the same at Emirates Stadium on Saturday, but our head coach spoke about how he likes to leave it until matchday to confirm his plans to our players to avoid any time spent worrying about them beforehand.

“I want the players, when they’re on the pitch, feeling what they’re doing and taking initiative,” he explained. “I don’t want players thinking: ‘What if tomorrow I have to do certain things?’ That’s why I did it.

“In the end, it’s trying to fit the qualities that we have within the squad, within the players. We want to deliver and what the game requires and what the opposition requires, I would take it more into that aspect than the other one, but after it has to work. If not, it’s not the right call.”

Arteta was also asked about the possibility of promoting younger forwards from our academy into the first team, and he reiterated that the pathway is there for anyone who earns those opportunities - but admits that Merino isn't the only non-striker who has been deployed up front in training.

“We trained the last few weeks with different players there to be fair, and [Mikel has] been one of them," the boss added. "But we've done it with other players as well because it’s how you can finish the game, how you start the game, how you change if the opponent does something different, and every three days we're going to need different options.

“We believed it was right for that context [against Leicester] but then he made it right. Starting a game is very different, especially against a team with the ability to play in different ways with very different behaviours within different structures that they can use as well, and that's what we have prepared for.

“[Youngsters] have been in our system for a while but they’ve been very close and obviously we might have to use them. They look ready as well, which is a good thing. It can be at any moment. I spoke to them about it so they are ready for it.

“Every time you play a player you are betting on that player. What is a bet - I'm prepared to bet a certain amount of money to earn, but not a lot to earn very little! In the end, it’s about putting players in positions and roles and surrounded by players that we believe make sense and it can work and they are comfortable there.