#viktor-gyokeres

#viktor-gyokeres

Arsenal's makeshift striker Mikel Merino had a very poor game against Aston Villa today, perhaps showing that Mikel Arteta needs to end this experiment. The Spain international has filled in pretty well as an emergency centre-forward, scoring in recent games against Chelsea and Brentford, but in general it surely can't be considered a long-term option. Against Villa today we saw Merino thoroughly shackled, with the 29-year-old barely able to make any kind of impact on the game.

I am concerned because he hasn't had many muscular issues and he had to leave the pitch and he was feeling something, That's obviously never a good sign, especially for a player that is very, very explosive. So we are digging in a little bit more to understand where we are in terms of the injury and we'll announce the moment we know. He's definitely not available [to play Slavia]. He hasn't trained today. We need to do some more tests and scans in the next few days to understand the extent of the injury.

Arsenal striker Viktor Gyokeres sent an interesting message about how much he liked playing with Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke as the team's two wingers against Nottingham Forest today. The Gunners earned a comfortable 3-0 win over Forest at the Emirates Stadium, with Gyokeres scoring the second goal after a lovely assist by fellow summer signing Eze. Martin Zubimendi also shone in the game, scoring twice for Arsenal, but afterwards Gyokeres had special praise for Eze and Madueke in particular.