Arsenal international hits post in 1st start of the season

Mikel Merino made his first competitive start of the season with Spain on Tuesday, perhaps setting him up for another with Arsenal this weekend.

Mikel Merino faced significant disruption to his season at the start of the 2024/25 campaign.

First, Real Sociedad left him out of their opening two matchday squads. That was supposedly due to injury, but many suspected he was really being excluded due to the speculation around a move to Arsenal.

When the midfielder finally joined Arsenal, he really did get injured, missing the next month of football.

Merino finally returned to action on October 1st, coming off the bench against PSG and then Southampton. But he’s still yet to make a start for the Gunners.

Over the international break, Merino continued to build up his minutes. He played 28 minutes against Denmark, then finally got his first start back against Serbia on Tuesday.

The 28-year-old put in a good shift, even going close to a goal as a powerful header hit the woodwork.

Between the two games, Merino played just over 90 minutes, coming off just after the hour mark in the Serbia clash. His combined stats from the two appearances were as follows:

Now that he’s returned to the starting lineup for Spain, you’d imagine he’s also in contention to do the same for Arsenal.

The Gunners face Bournemouth this weekend, and with Thomas Partey pulling out of the international break due to illness, perhaps this could be a good time to make the change.