Talk about a variation of emotions from the start, middle and ending of a football match, eh?

On about 75 minutes Amanda messaged me and asked whether to bother with doing a post match Same Old Arsenal podcast. It’d been a pretty turgid game, punctuated only with the occasional bright spark from eventual man of the match Ethan Nwaneri, with Arsenal going close towards basically having the Premier League title all but mathematically out of reach. Devoid of creative spark other than the 17-year-old, it’d been a dreadful first half watch, a frustrating second half watch and until we finally saw the back of Raheem Sterling yesterday (will come to him in a bit), we looked like we could play all day and not score. Unless it would be a moment of magic (which, to be fair to Ethan, he nearly delivered with one shot that clipped to top of the bar and one that the keep palmed on to the post).

Arteta had named a side that I think most of us had expected; the back five was obvious given recent performances and the midfield three was the first choice three of Partey, Rice and Odegaard. During the week there had been speculation by a few of us that he might try something different, but Arteta went wqith his only three recognised attackers and given our paucity of options, that made sense and I was fine with it.

But by halftime I was hoping the manager could pull an attacking rabbit out of a hat, because it was not working in any way, shape or form. Nwaneri had been bright; he had beaten Leicester’s left back a couple of time, he’d popped a few balls into the box that we just couldn’t get the end of and when you look at the involvement from all of the players on any stats website or app, you’d have seen that he was the one that was making things happen. But that was pretty much it from that first half. Trossard was anonymous. Odegaard was trying and had a couple of attempted chip lobs that didn’t go anywhere and Rice was making a few aggressive runs into forward line positions from deep. But that was it.

Well, there is one left-wing shaped elephant in the room I haven’t mentioned but again, I’ll come to Sterling in a minute.

That first half was the manifestation of all of our collective fears; a toothless attacking Arsenal who when faced with an organised side – something Leicester had not been all season I might add – we seemed to run out of ideas. Leicester did not play in a low block though; they were high enough up the pitch to catch Trossard and Sterling offside a few times, so it wasn’t as if we were playing a team camped in their box, not until we got into the final third of the game anyway. But we seemed to have no real idea. Those senior pro’s just weren’t really able to deliver on anything.

And so to the second half, where Mikel had clearly told the team to up the intensity and to a lesser extent, we saw a little more dominance and Leicester retreating back into their own defensive third a little more. But we were still huffing and puffing to no avail. I was disappointed that, with 10 days off, there wasn’t more energy in the Arsenal team. Was it a confidence thing? Maybe. If we as fans are all feeling like we can’t catch a break, that we are down to the bare bones in attack and our collective confidence has been hit, what must the players be feeling? Arteta talked up the challenge before the game and clearly he has to put a positive face on it, but you can’t just ignore the reality of the predicament we’re in because of the injury crisis.

But after 20 minutes of more of the same – only a tiny bit better – in that second half, clearly something needed to change, which came in the form of Mikel Merino. I had seen some of the talk about him having the same physical profile of Havertz in midweek, but in my mind I pretty much dismissed it. “How is a midfielder going to do the job of a striker?” I thought to myself. He’s not as mobile as Kai, he’s not as good from a technical point of view (in my opinion) with the ball at his feet, so why on earth would that work?

Well, Chris, you can eat your words this morning. Because it absolutely did work and Merino’s two goals in the last 10 minutes plus stoppage time have salvaged what was shaping up to be a pretty turgid lunchtime. The first felt like a goal he absolutely has in his locker; a great ball in between the two centre halves and there he is to head it home. If he’s wearing number nine on his back then we’re all saying it’s an archetypal centre forwards finish. And we’ve seen those finishes from him before. He scored from a ball in and in between the centre halves earlier in the season against Liverpool and he arrived in the box to head home a stoppage time winner for Spain in the Euro’s last summer too, so we know he has it in his locker. But to see it happen and to see us deliver end product at such a crucial time was fantastic and I jumped out of my seat round in the parents lounge yesterday. Woke the Management up from a snooze too!

The second goal was another predatory finish and taking so well too I thought. Trossard – instantly looking better on the left – beat his man and then sent a perfect ball across to the back post for Merino to run on to and his finish was that of a clinical striker.

A quick ‘hat tip’ to Arteta as well for making the change. If you give him a head shake when he makes changes or makes decisions that he gets wrong, then you also have to give props when he gets it right – he definitely did that yesterday. So whilst Merino will rightly get most of the plaudits, Arteta needs his flowers too.

That cameo, plus the profile and type of player he is, could very well mean he’s found himself a place in this team for the remainder of this season, because Plan A did not work in the slightest. That is, sadly, in part due to the absolute stinkfest of a performance from Raheem Sterling. The man known as a dribbler who is good with the ball at his feet lost all three of of the dribbles he attempted. He was offside twice whilst looking along the line. He delivered absolutely nothing in the final third and at one point with the ball passed quite simply to his feet, he just ran it out of play. Once upon a time he was a deadly wide player. That time has long since passed and I don’t think I am alone in saying that I don’t think he’s playable any more. Based on what we saw yesterday the only minutes he can be getting are dead ones if we find ourselves in front by a couple of goals with ten minutes to play. And even then the only reason he should be on the pitch is because of giving others a rest, rather than because of his own merit. Because giving him minutes can’t be on merit right now. He’s just not good enough. This loan has been a failure and whilst on paper I thought it might be a useful one, you can see why Arteta has barely used him – he’s washed as a top flight elite footballer. The good news is that we don’t have him on a mega contract and can give him back to be Chelsea’s problem in the summer. Good luck to them finding a buyer for him and his £300k-per-week wages.

But let’s not end on a sour note on a day in which we secured three points, because we’ve kept ourselves going in this competition and as Tim Stillman pointed out on BlueSky (can’t find the exact message unfortunately) yesterday, this team is giving everything right now. Liverpool with fewer injuries fell away last season. We are at least fighting to stay in it. And you have to respect and applaud it. It will – I believe – ultimately be too much for these players, but I am proud and also delighted in equal measure on the shift they are putting in.

Catch you all tomorrow.