As Arsenal prepare to host West Ham in the Premier League this Saturday, the question Mikel Arteta must answer appears to be how he utilises his limited attacking options rather than the focus being on who starts.
An extended break between matches earlier this month allowed the Gunners to jet off to a warm weather training camp, where Kai Havertz sustained an unlucky season-ending injury.
Joining Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus on the sidelines, it is a situation that was to test Arteta at Leicester City last weekend.
The boss lined up with Leandro Trossard, Ethan Nwaneri and Raheem Sterling up front. When they did not produce, he brought midfielder Mikel Merino from the bench as a makeshift striker so that he could have the match-winning impact.
As a result the question of starting with that very same system vs West Ham has been asked, to which the reply was: “We believe he was right for that context, but then he made it right.
“Starting a game is very different, especially against a team that obviously they have the adaptability to play in different ways, with very different behaviours within different structures that they can use as well. And that’s what we have prepared.”
Arsenal themselves have hinted that the Spaniard will have a big part to play again as he takes a central position in Saturday’s matchday graphic on Instagram, joined by Martin Odegaard, Declan Rice and Nwaneri.
If Merino does indeed start vs the Hammers, it would be a case of one attacker being replaced. Sterling came under a certain amount of fire for his lack of contribution last week – a theme throughout the season.
The 30-year-old loanee from Chelsea hasn’t matched the contributions of those at the club before him, which has become glaringly obvious with those players injured.
Regardless, Arteta has said: “Raheem is so experienced, and like many other players, we know that what you did yesterday is not whether it was really good or not. That could be relevant to the next game, to the next action. He’s fully focused, he’s trained really well this week, and ready to go again.”
And Sterling himself has proven he is ready for the manager’s decision with his own matchday graphic posted to his personal Instagram story.
(Image: Instagram: @sterling7)
