Don Pacifico that was very early in his career though and he wasn't too impressive for them. He's been a very good La Liga player though and I expect he has a lot more in him I just hope it doesn't take him too long to get where we need him.

Merino will be fine but we need a more creative option in midfield too. Nwaneri is the long-term solution, but I'd love to also have a Rosicky who can fill in at left 8 or wide left, put in a shift, make some tackles, and make some things happen.

Honestly, he drove me crazy with his inability to play possession, but having someone like Theo as an option would be amazing in this squad. We waste so many transitions and we lack a pacey outlet who can finish.

    kamikaze Theo was rubbish for his era. But in a context with 5 subs and games that last 100+ minutes, such a player would be useful.

    Merino is not a player I had any insight of before we got him in. With how he was described I wasn't convinced that he was exactly what we needed but have to see how he slots in. He's looked a bit behind the pace so far but I guess not surprising for now.

    We haven't seen enough of Merino, given the shoulder injury, to have a clear idea what he'll be about as an Arsenal player.

    I like everything I know about the guy and I suspect he'll come through. I also think it could take till Christmas as it has been far from an ideal start for him.

    Still not convinced we got the right guy from Reala. Obviously too early to tell.

    Zubimendi really wasn't available, or did you mean someone else Coombs?

      Burnwinter that's who I meant. Regardless of his availability, this still fees like a proximity buy.

      Not nearly to this extent, but remember Eisfeld when we were all looking at Götze?

      True, maybe there's a slight element of laziness or Merino's transfer being on a path of least resistance, but I reckon it's mostly that Arteta's in the Basque football mafia and Arsenal's been doing relatively trouble free business with Real Sociedad for decades now.

      I felt encouraged we knew what we were doing on this front, and had the inside track after Liverpool went in so hard and late for Zubimendi and got comprehensively shut down. You still have to presume he's off to Madrid but it's better to know these things up front.

      kamikaze Honestly, he drove me crazy with his inability to play possession, but having someone like Theo as an option would be amazing in this squad. We waste so many transitions and we lack a pacey outlet who can finish.

      Arteta doesn't seem to want that though. He could easily deploy Sterling or Martinelli like that but he doesn't. Was a similar story with Auba. Seems to me if we had a peak Theo when Arteta arrived he'd have moved him on pretty quickly.

      He's supposed to be a good pivot as well and ball playing mid but he is so invisible in every game he has played. It's like we are with 10 man

      Yep I think it's pretty meaningless even thinking about how Merino fits in until we can play something like:

                      Raya
      RB      CB     CB     Calafiori / Timber
                 Partey / Rice
           Ødegaard / Nwaneri     Merino
      Saka          Havertz   Martinelli / Trossard

      Or at least something vaguely close to that.

      Expecting Merino to come back from an injury that's fucked up his preseason, and swiftly fix the deficiencies we have with Øde and Saka out is naïve in my opinion.

      Merino wasn't bought to do that, he was bought to be mobile and somewhat versatile, to win duels and headers and be a little bit of an added threat on Saka's inswingers, to play at 8 not 6 (read the Edu's BBQ analysis of his game if you believe otherwise) … and maybe to fix some of the issues we've had linking up the attack with Rice on the left.

      Selecting Nwaneri would be more likely to address our current absences than selecting Merino, because Nwaneri can create a chance, and he's shown he can cut in sharply off the right and shoot with his left like Bukayo. Unfortunately he's 17 years old and lacks 90 minutes of endurance in his body, but I'd certainly like to see more of him till our stars return.

      I don't think we should be considering him a first XI player. He's not better than any of Ode, Partey and Rice. If he can do a good back up and rotation job for Rice and Partey thats pretty useful and makes him worth the outlay.

      Amy concerns that starting Nwaneiri ahead of Merino will kill his confidence, and essentially doom the transfer?

        they also have a different skillset so I don't really see it