Mikel Merino\u2019s significant foot injury, which requires surgery, presents a clear selection problem for Arsenal as they navigate the second half of the season. With it too late in the day to secure a short-term replacement in the January transfer window, the most plausible course is an internal solution built around the existing squad.<\/p>\n
Kai Havertz is the obvious candidate to shift deeper. Arteta once said upon Kai Havertz\u2019s arrival in 2023, “Kai is a player of top quality. He has great versatility and is an intelligent player. He will bring a huge amount of extra strength to our midfield and variety to our play.” Havertz initially struggled in the role Granit Xhaka had mastered, but his ability to ghost in behind defences was clear when he scored a late winner at Brentford in November. He later played off the shoulder of Gabriel Jesus and gradually became a central attacking option.<\/p>\n
Havertz recovered from a knee injury that kept him out for most of 2025 and is being carefully reintegrated while Gabriel Jesus is fit and Viktor Gy\u00f6keres is scoring freely. Merino has been used sporadically as a striker this season, but most of his minutes have been in midfield. Deploying Havertz a touch deeper would mirror the plan Arteta outlined in 2023 and would capitalise on Havertz\u2019s power and ability to win duels and arrive late into the box, even if neither he nor Merino are natural build-up maestros.<\/p>\n
That approach assumes the basic midfield shape remains intact, with Declan Rice and Mart\u00edn Zubimendi operating together. The third midfield berth becomes a contest: \u00d8degaard was the long-term shoo-in, Eberechi Eze is still pushing for the manager\u2019s trust, and Havertz could be pressed into service in the engine room.<\/p>\n
Other internal options exist. Ethan Nwaneri might have been in line for more minutes but was shipped off to Marseille on loan last month. Myles Lewis-Skelly\u2019s breakthrough at left back reminded many that he is a midfielder by trade; his comfort in central zones after moving inside for club and country offers another creative option.<\/p>\n
Let it all work out, Mikel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arsenal plan internal solutions after Mikel Merino\u2019s surgery leaves midfield spot uncertain instead<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6475,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1303,969],"tags":[1081,1305,1304],"class_list":["post-6476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-arsenal-news","category-premier-league","tag-adaptation","tag-bench-selection","tag-benching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6476","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=6476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}