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Michael Owen says Arsenal have a player who was even better than Mikel Merino in 2-0 win vs Leicester City
Several Arsenal players rose to the occasion and steered the visitors towards a much-needed 2-0 victory against Leicester City.
William Saliba lauded Mikel Merino, who was the Gunners’ matchwinner on the day aftꦅer scoring a brilliant brace by jokingly claiming that he is “the best striker in the world.”
All eyes were on Mikel Merino after Mikel Arteta brought him on as a makeshift striker and the former Real Sociedad mi𝓰dfield﷽er looked the part by dispatching two chances into the back of the net.
Whether the Arsenal boss will persist with Merino as a centre-forward remains to be seen. Apart from the Spanish international, Mikel Arteta described Mꦬartin Odega☂ard as “tremendous” as well.
Ethan Nwaneri ran the show as well and produced a com🎶ing-of-age disp♔lay against Leicester.
Merino described Nwaneri as an “amazing player” after the Englishman set the super-sub’s winn꧂ing goal and had yet another excellent game in an Arsenal shirt.
- READ MORE: Paul Merson says Arsenal youngster could now become༺ a ‘superstar’ as Kai Havertz replacement
Ethan Nwaneri told he was better than Mikel Merino during Leicester City vs Arsenal
Even Joe Cole sang Nw🐽aneri’s praises 🐲against Leicester City as the youngster🌄 showed that he is well-capable of emerging as a top-quality understudy to Bukayo Saka on the right flank.
Whether the 17-year-old or Mer🐠ino was the 🐭standout player is difficult to ascertain as the pair combined for the first goal that opened the floodgates for the Gunners.
But according to Michael Owen, Nwaneri was the best player on the pitch against Leicester City instead of his Arsenal teammate.
Owen said via Pr൩emier League Productions: “You could make a case for [Mikel]൲ Merino, he won the game for them basically but no, over the 90 minutes, he was the best player on the pitch.”
“He’s good, I really, really like him, I think⭕ he’s going to be a name for the long teꦦrm. I mean, [Bukayo] Saka’s going to have to come back into the team in a couple of months’ time or whenever it will be and it won’t be easy to take him out of the team the way he’s playing at the moment.”
It is hard to🔜 disagree with Michael Owen as even in the first half, Nwaneri was Arsenal’s best player — completing five take-ons, misplacing just two out of his 21 passes, winning all 𒁏of his eight duels, creating one chance, winning two tackles and taking two touches in the opposition box.
With Bukayo Saka set to return in March, Mikel Arteta will be hopi🉐ng that he can rely on the wonderkid to produce more such 🌠excellent displays.
In fairness to Nwaneri, he plays beyond his years and seems to have a cool head on his shoulders not to be fazed by su𝔍ch responsibility.
Ethan Nwaneri studies Bukayo Saka and that showed during Leicester City vs Arsenal
Nwaneri admitted to studying Saka’s game and speaki🦄ng to him frequently, which was evident against Leicester as he looked like a na🎉tural winger rather than a midfielder playing out wide against Leicester.
“Yeah, 100 per cent. Coming in on his left foot, I try and see the different things he triesᩚ🀅ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ to do, the crosses, the shots that he takes, I try and add it to my game because I find myself in similar positions a lot.”
“The𝓰re’s a lot of things that I can take and🀅 I’m trying to take and add them to mine.”
“I think his unpredictability [is what Nwaneri would like to add to his ꦍgame], his ability to go down the right and the left, that’s something that I want to try to take. We talk quite a lot, like if I see him at breakfast, talk about his past experienced when he was just breaking through the team, all the stuff that he went through and all the good and all the bad so I think that definitely helps me and it makes me feel good about myself that someone else has gone through this and lꩲook at the level he’s gone to.”