Arsenal transfer targets: Why duel monster Mikel Merino would be popular with Arteta

Arsenal came agonisingly close to ending a two-decade championship drought last season.

Mikel Arteta’s men pushed defending champions Manchester City all the way, losing by two points, their highest total since Arsène Wenger’s Invincibles twenty years prior.

The previous 2022/23 campaign saw the Gunners finish as runners-up by five points, making this current period their most successful since between 1997 and 2005 when they claimed three Premier League crowns and finished second on five occasions.

With this newfound status come great expectations, and with their fellow top-six rivals, bar Liverpool and City, in recruitment mode, the pressure is on Arsenal to follow suit by signing last season’s Golden Glove winner, David Raya, to a permanent deal following his loan spell from Brentford—the only major piece of business.

However, multifunctional Bologna defender Riccardo Calafiori, who impressed at Euro 2024 for a disappointing Italian side, is expected to join, with tournament winner Mikel Merino also heavily linked with the Gunners.

Merino notably registered a last-minute, extra-time winner against hosts Germany in the quarterfinals. It was his second-ever goal for Spain across 28 appearances. However, according to reports, it’s what the Pamplona native is good at that has attracted countryman Arteta’s attention.

A defensive midfielder who is slightly more dynamic while still retaining the same on-the-ball qualities, thus complementing a middle-third triumvirate already consisting of Declan Rice and skipper Martin Ødegaard, with whom Merino previously shared a pitch.

Merino and Ødegaard (on loan from Real Madrid) were at Real Sociedad for the 2019/20 season, during which they played 34 matches together while jointly contributing to one goal: Ødegaard’s opener in a 2–0 league win over Atlético Madrid.

It was also Merino’s second campaign following an ill-fated Premier League stint at Newcastle United, yielding one goal and one assist through 24 outings. That being said, Merino was 22 when he joined the Magpies from Borussia Dortmund, where he had initially relocated from his boyhood club, Osasuna.

His sole Premier League season is now a distant memory, and to say he’s come on leaps and bounds since becoming a Real Sociedad player would be an understatement. In the 2023/24 season just gone, Merino ranked first among his teammates for tackles (77), aerial duels won (168), and possessions won in both the middle (112) and attacking thirds (21). He also completed the most final-third passes (354) and registered five goals and three assists.

Even more impressive was that Merino was the only player in Europe’s top seven leagues to win 300+ duels. This incredible ability has not gone unnoticed by Arsenal supporters, who unearthed a clip from the Arsenal: All or Nothing documentary that showed Arteta’s passionate talk after the club’s shocking FA Cup third-round defeat to Nottingham Forest in January 2022.

“When I lose a duel, I am upset,” he shouted. “When I lose the small-sided games, I am upset because that’s the f****** standards, because you come here and f****** lose.”

If they are to sign Merino, who has a year left on his current deal and will cost Arsenal a modest £21m according to media reports in Spain, then the chances of Arteta displaying such emotion may be a thing of the past.