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Gary Neville suggests Mikel Arteta has an obvious striker solution at Arsenal he hasn’t even considered yet
Mikel Arteta’s player profiling will be tested to the limit as he spends his time behind closed doors trying to determine which of his stars is the best-suited to lead the line for Arsenal after Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus’ injuries.
🉐Mikel Merino’s surprisingly clinical cameo as a makeshift number nine against Leicester City hands Arteta a potentially straightforward solution to address his woes in the centre-forward position.
However, one performance, albeit a very impressive one from Merino does not indicate that he is the definite answer to Arsenal’s lack of depth up front.
As the Gunners try to conjure up ways to leapfrog Liverpool in the Premier League title race, Mikel Arteta♈ will be hoping that one of his players can become a consistent goalscorer to bail them out until the end of the season.
| Position | Team | Played MP | Won W | Drawn D | Lost L | For GF | Against GA | Diff GD | Points Pts |
| 1 |  LiverpoolLiverpool | 25 | 18 | 6 | 1 | 60 | 24 | 36 | 60 |
| 2 |  ArsenalArsenal | 25 | 15 | 8 | 2 | 51 | 22 | 29 | 53 |
ಞLeandro Trossard was trialled as Arsenal’s main man up front against Leicester but he had a game to forget and with Ethan Nwaneri serving as the injured Bukayo Saka’s replacement on the right-wing, Arteta has limited options in forward areas to convert a player into a number nine.
🅠Gary Neville lacks much sympathy for Arsenal’s striker crisisꦏ as he claimed that the club knew at the start of the season that it was a priority for them to sign an upgrade in arguably the most flawed department of their squad.
Gary Neville suggests Declan Rice could become Arsenal’s striker
⛦Neville claimed that the Gunners are not a plucky underdog but a team accustomed to challenging for titles and they should have done everything in their power to win the league, either in the summer or the winter transfer window.
ꦅHowever, Arsenal failed to pull the trigger to sign a striker — a decision that could cost them in not just the league but the Champions League as well.
As Gary Neville had his say on Merino playing up front against Leicester, the pundit believes that Declan Rice🍒 seemed like a far more obvious alternative in the centre-forward position to him.
💙The Manchester United legend said on The Gary Neville Podcast: “I thought it might be Declan Rice, coming from behind and from midfield and going forward and Jorginho and [Thomas] Partey might be deeper or even Merino and Partey might be deeper.”
♛“But it’s ended up that Merino’s obviously gone forward and he’s been the one that’s been the threat in the box. Sometimes, good can come out of what seems to be bad and you can sort of develop something together.”
When 🌳Mikel Arteta named Arsenal’s centre-forward options, he did not name Rice which suggests that he has not even come to his mind yet. The Spaniard’s supposed stance is surprising, considering Arteta thinks Rice can score goals for fun♓ if he continues to arrive late into the box from midfield.
Declan Rice thinks he would score 20 plus goals as Arsenal striker
Furthermore, Rice believes he could score 20 goals for Arsenal if he played up front.
ജIn November, the England international was asked: “If you could swap positions for one game only where would you play and why?”
Rice replied: “Number nine, a big target man.”
ℱThe former West Ham United skipper was asked: “How many goals are you getting?”
Rice replied: “A season? 20 plus.”
Even if the Europa Conference League winner was overestimating himself, Havertz rates Rice highly in attacking positions๊ and perhaps it might be worth the experiment for Mikel Arteta to play him as a striker.