Arsenal have been left assessing their options after Mikel Merino was ruled out of Saturday\u2019s victory over Leeds United and could be facing a lengthy absence, a report has revealed. The suggestion of a “serious” injury raises the possibility that Merino will miss several weeks and forces the club to consider the closing transfer window.<\/p>\n
Merino provides vital midfield cover under Arteta, supporting both Mart\u00edn Zubimendi and Declan Rice. While Merino has forged a reputation as an emergency striker, it is in midfield where he finds most importance under Arteta, providing key cover to both Mart\u00edn Zubimendi and Declan Rice. His loss would reduce the manager\u2019s rotation options at a time when Arsenal are pushing on multiple fronts.<\/p>\n
Winger Bukayo Saka also gave cause for concern after he pulled out of the warm-up for Saturday\u2019s game. Saka\u2019s withdrawal created a bench opportunity that saw Christian N\u00f8rgaard included, a player who was not originally expected to be on the bench until Saka\u2019s late absence opened a spot.<\/p>\n
With transfer deadlines across Europe just hours away, an emergency signing could be required if Merino is ruled out for a significant period. Arteta will want multiple rotation options as Arsenal head into the decisive phase of their Quadruple charge, and previous seasons have shown how injuries and a lack of high-level alternatives can derail title hopes.<\/p>\n
Arsenal have not confirmed the extent of Merino\u2019s problem, but reports indicating a “serious” injury point to at least a month on the sidelines. Even in a best-case scenario, Merino appears likely to miss Tuesday\u2019s Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against Chelsea. Meetings with Sunderland, Brentford, Wigan Athletic and Tottenham Hotspur across February may also come too soon for him.<\/p>\n
Chelsea return to Arsenal\u2019s schedule at the start of March, followed by a Champions League round of 16 tie against one of Borussia Dortmund, Atalanta, Olympiacos or Bayer Leverkusen. The club must weigh the risk of further absences against the window deadline when deciding whether to act.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mikel Merino’s possible “serious” injury pushes Arsenal toward the transfer market ahead of deadline<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6389,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1067,172],"tags":[826,1066,1433],"class_list":["post-6390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-carabao-cup","category-epl","tag-bukayo-saka","tag-carabao-cup","tag-merino-injury"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}