Arsenal went into the north London derby on Sunday without their first three options up front.
Viktor Gyokeres was ruled out, joining Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus — both of whom have yet to play this season — in the treatment room. The only solution was for Mikel Merino to reprise his role as Arsenal’s effective No 9. Incidentally, Arsenal were also without their biggest threat at set pieces, Gabriel.
Curiously, amid all these problems, Tottenham Hotspur head coach Thomas Frank decided the best course of action was to beef up his defence with the addition of an extra centre-back, Kevin Danso, moving to a back five for the first time in the Premier League. This felt like an unnecessarily negative move, and prompted a simple question: who would all these centre-backs actually be picking up?
Well, for long periods of the game, the answer was… no one.
In this respect, it feels like Arsenal have learned their lessons from a 1-1 draw at Manchester United last season. That was another occasion when Arsenal fielded Merino as their highest player. The problem on that day, though, was that Merino played as a ‘proper’ No 9, high up against three centre-backs who were comfortable battling against him. He surely needed to play deeper, as a false nine, to drag opponents out of position.
And, sure enough, whereas Merino was theoretically leading the line against Tottenham, really, he was dropping off to become an extra midfielder.
At times, the situation felt unusual. Here are two Tottenham attackers primarily concerned with Arsenal’s two holding midfielders, and then Tottenham’s defensive midfielders primarily concerned with Merino and Eberechi Eze, Arsenal’s front two. Spurs’ defenders had no one to mark.
And while Merino didn’t score, he played his role perfectly, free to drop deep and receive the ball.
He spent most of the first half moving towards the right flank, allowing Arsenal to play forward passes and for him to dribble up the pitch. OK, the consequence is that Arsenal didn’t offer any permanent penalty-box threat, but this helped them put constant pressure on Tottenham, who barely got out of their own half.
A couple of minutes after that incident, Arsenal did something similar, and Micky van de Ven clattered into the back of Merino.
A small incident, but one that showed Tottenham’s defenders were being tested in a positional sense.
And while Merino was the most advanced player, really, he was just a decoy. He occupied defenders and dragged them up, but the movement in behind came from elsewhere. In fact, it came from everywhere.
Arsenal’s first chance came when midfielder Declan Rice raced in behind onto an Eze chip.
A few minutes later, it was holding midfielder Martin Zubimendi suddenly making a burst into the channel, with Danso tempted forward to close down left-back Riccardo Calafiori. The pass from Leandro Trossard didn’t come.
Next up, it was the full-backs. With Merino and Eze occupying Van de Ven and Cristian Romero, and Destiny Udogie watching Bukayo Saka on the outside, Jurrien Timber makes a sudden burst in an attempt to reach a Zubimendi chip over the defence. Udogie, in fairness, covers well.
This time, when Zubimendi was on the ball, Merino and Eze were between the lines. Calafiori tried a similar run, almost becoming Arsenal’s centre-forward despite starting from left-back. Zubimendi played a simple square ball instead. But the constant runs in behind were coming from everywhere.
Next up, it’s the wide players running in behind.
Spurs’ back three again have no one to mark, and Zubimendi drives forward on the ball, which slightly commits Van de Ven towards him. That opens up space for Saka to run into — again, Zubimendi could have been more positive here.
And then, finally, the goal comes from a run in behind and a chip over the top. And this is the perfect example because the man receiving the ball in the centre of the pitch, completely unmarked, is Merino.
He’s not a striker, he’s a false nine. His ball in behind is weighted perfectly, and Trossard was able to bring the ball down and, via a deflection, find the bottom corner.
After that, of course, it was the Eze show — finding space in front of the Tottenham defence to crash home a brilliant hat-trick with three goals struck from a similar position.
But the key was that opening goal; the longer Tottenham held out, the more Arsenal would become frustrated and start lobbing crosses into the box. But Arsenal had a game plan, involving Merino, and stuck to it.
“I think he was incredible again, we are asking him to do a lot of things to play as a No 9, and do the things that a No 9 has to do,” said Arteta. “But he is such an intelligent player, and his desire to contribute and make others better is so big.”
But it was surely about more than acting as a No 9. Merino’s key contribution was playing deeper than expected, leaving Spurs’ defenders with no one to mark, and finding space between the lines to deliver a perfect chipped assist for the opener.
Here, he was as much a midfielder as a striker, with the goalscoring threat coming from a rotating cast of others.