Mikel Arteta has promised Arsenal fans that summer signing Mikel Merino is destined to ‘deliver big things’ for his new team.
The Gunners fought off competition from the likes of Atletico Madrid and Barcelona during the summer as they secured the services of the former Real Sociedad midfielder.
Merino’s Arsenal career got off to the worst possible start, however, when he injured his shoulder during his first training session following a collision with Gabriel Magalhaes.
The Spain international belatedly made his debut earlier this month and showed a few promising glimpses of his potential during cameo appearances against Paris Saint-Germain and Southampton.
A raft of injuries saw Merino finally make his full debut on Saturday but the 28-year-old struggled to make an impact in a shock 2-0 defeat at Bournemouth.
Merino is certain to feature again this evening as Arsenal aim to bounce back in the Champions League against Shakhtar Donetsk and Arteta is confident one of his headline summer signings will prove a shrewd acquisition.
‘A player with an unbelievable football brain with a lot of leadership skills that has the right experience,’ said Arteta when asked what fans could expect to see once Merino is up to full speed.
‘He is going to give us so much but it is very difficult to judge because he got injured straight away and has only played certain parts of games but you’re going to see him grow and deliver big things for the team.’
Merino, himself, meanwhile, is aiming to take the positives from a defeat that has left his side with little margin for error in the Premier League title race, particularly with a game against leaders Liverpool on the horizon this weekend.
‘It’s always good when you lose a game [to play another game quickly], it’s always bad when you win because this is football nowadays, you don’t have time to think about the last game, about the last action,’ he said.
‘You always have new things coming, new challenges and it’s really good to have a game now, we can try to win, try to give our best version in front of our fans and try to, not erase because obviously we have to think about it [the Bournemouth game] and try to get better and learn from the mistakes, but to have a new feeling.
‘For us, it is always about winning. Mikel [Arteta] knows that, Mikel’s always telling us that, we have to win in any context and the thing is, we have the team capable of doing that.
‘We have been playing in a very challenging situation for the last couple of weeks but the coach told us he’s really proud of the effort, of how the team managed to play with one player less for almost the whole game. So it’s about taking the good things, not only the bad things, and try to improve for the next game.’
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