Mikel Merino dismisses one ‘excuse’ as Arsenal falter in Premier League title race

Mikel Merino has dismissed the idea that Arsenal’s injury problems could be an excuse for dropping points in recent weeks, saying there is actually a benefit to some players being out injured.

The Gunners are third in the table, so it has hardly been a disastrous start to the season, but they have only won five of their nine Premier League matches so far.

A draw with Liverpool last time out followed a shock defeat at Bournemouth and Mikel Arteta’s side are already five points behind league-leaders Manchester City.

Merino, a summer signing from Real Sociedad who scored his first Gunners goal in the 2-2 draw with Liverpool, says that the team remains laser focussed on success and will not be derailed by injury issues.

Arteta currently has selection headaches over the likes of Martin Odegaard, Gabriel, Riccardo Calafiori and Jurrien Timber, but the Spanish midfielder says they cannot be used as an excuse.

‘The message is simple – this team is not going to lose their focus, it’s never going to give up no matter what the situation or what time of the year it is,’ Merino said.

‘The focus is to go 100 per cent and learn from every game. We focus only on ourselves and what we can do to win every single game. We don’t look outside the team – in spite of this result, we don’t look too far ahead, we focus on the present. This is our mentality and it’s what will bring us success in the future.

‘Injuries are part of the game and they cannot be an excuse for results. Injuries have pros and cons – one of the pros is that we are seeing young players make their debuts and be involved.

‘As a club, you want to bring young players through from the academy, give them opportunities and you can see this is a club where everyone is able to do a really good job even though we don’t have important players like Martin [Odegaard] available.’

Both Timber and Gabriel picked up injuries against Liverpool, with Arteta offering an update on the defenders after the draw at the Emirates.

‘I don’t know but he could not run that’s what he said straight away,’ said the Arsenal manager when asked for an update on Gabriel. ‘I don’t know what happened, I don’t know if it’s the knee joint or the ankle.’

On Timber, he added: ‘We’ve done everything we possibly could to accelerate that process and he was so willing.

‘The medical staff has done amazing work and we gave ourselves the chance to compete. I don’t know the extent of the injury, the same with big Gabi.’