Mikel Merino says Saturday’s visit of Brentford represents a great opportunity to build on Tuesday’s fantastic performance against Real Madrid and take a positive result into next week’s second leg.
Previewing this weekend’s Premier League meeting at Emirates Stadium, our goalscoring Spaniard said: “Yes, it's really important to have the momentum to use the energy that we created the other day in the Emirates to keep going and just give the fans another great performance, get the three points and obviously keep the momentum and the tempo for the future games.
“But obviously, really, really focus on Brentford because they are a really tough opponent with a lot of qualities.So, yeah, looking forward to it.”
Merino has fond memories of our previous encounter with the Bees as he scored in our 3-1 win at the Gtech Community Stadium at the start of 2025.
“Yeah, it was New Year's Day, which is special always for me to come back here in England and be back in the Boxing Day stuff that you do,” he recalled.
“So, it was a really special day. Scoring as well is always great, but the most important thing was getting the three points away. Yeah, it was a really, really good memory for me.
“Obviously, tough game against a really good opponent where we could see in that game that they made things tough for us. So, I guess we're going to use that game as our main focus to learn what we did good, what we didn't do as good, and try to take it to win this game.”
Merino added that confidence is sky high after this week’s 3-0 win in the UEFA Champions League, and he wants to keep adding to his scoring tally.
“Yeah, I mean, the confidence has always to be there, but after the other day, the players are just with that energy, with that feeling, thinking that we are that powerful team and we have to use it,” he explained. “It's always a good sign to feel that way.
“As I always say, you have to be humble, you have to have your feet on the ground, but feel that confidence and use it to give you energy to win every game.
“To be honest, I'm lucky to be scoring that many goals! Well, yeah, not lucky. I'm working for it, that's for sure. But yeah, sometimes goals don't come and now I'm in a streak, so I'll try to keep doing my job, keep working hard, and if I can help the team with goals, that's great.
“If not, I'll try to help the team in many other ways.”
Asked about the opportunity to close the gap on Liverpool at the top of the Premier League, Merino added: “I mean, the mentality is always to win every game. For me personally, it's not about what the other guys are doing. Obviously, you need them to drop points if you want to win the league, but the main focus has to be your own version and try to get the three points every single day.
“So yeah, that's still the aim, that's still the focus. Win this game, win the next one, win the next one. If we do that, I'm sure that good things can happen.”
Good things did happen when Declan Rice stepped up to take free-kick against Real Madrid on Tuesday, and Merino described those effort as world class.
“I think he earned the right to keep trying! But obviously, people have to have in mind that scoring free-kicks is tough, so don't expect him to score every single time that he has a chance!
“Obviously, now everybody's going to be on their toes when there's a free kick around the box. And obviously, with Declan and the quality he has, it's always going to be a chance.
“It was worth [the wait] to see those two world-class bangers, maybe one of the best in the history of the game. [My goal was] overshadowed by those two, but yeah, three really nice goals.”
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