4/10 Arsenal ace is playing himself out of the team

Another game and another disappointing performance from Arsenal.

Mikel Arteta’s side have looked entirely out of sorts over the last month or so, and while there were some improvements towards the end of last night’s Champions League clash with Inter Milan, it was too little too late as the team picked up their third defeat in six games.

There were poor performances all over the pitch for the North Londoners, but there were two starters who were particularly disappointing and may well have played themselves out of the starting lineup for Sunday’s game against Chelsea, including summer signing Mikel Merino.

Merino’s poor performance

It’s been a tough start to life in North London for Merino, as the former Real Sociedad star missed the beginning of the campaign due to an injury he picked up in his first training session with the club, and since he’s rejoined the first team, he’s looked well off the pace.

Unfortunately for him and Arteta, last night was no different, as he struggled to impose himself on the game, looked cumbersome with the ball and ultimately gave away the penalty that cost the Gunners the game, although we aren’t sure that’s a fair stick to beat him with as it would never be given in the Premier League.

Moreover, after a dismal first 45 minutes, in which the 28-year-old offered very little in either attack or defence, he was hooked for Gabriel Jesus, which is a rather damning decision from the manager.

It might sound like we are being overly harsh on the new recruit, but it’s an opinion shared by the Standard’s Sam Smith, who gave the Spaniard just 4/10 in his post-match player ratings, writing that he’s ‘the latest star to struggle in the absence of Odegaard’ and ‘struggled to have an impact on the game.’

In all, Merino had yet another game to forget in an Arsenal shirt, and given the fact he was taken off after the first half, we wouldn’t be surprised to see him dropped for Sunday alongside one of his fellow starters.

The Arsenal star playing himself out of the team

So, the unfortunate reality is that there are probably a few of Arsenal’s starters from last night who are playing themselves out of the team, but there is one player who stuck out for the wrong reasons: Leandro Trossard.

The Belgian international has so often been the attacker Arteta has turned to off the bench to make something happen in must-win matches, but against Inter, he was entirely ineffective, as he has been for a few games now.

The former Brighton & Hove Albion star is trying to carry the creative burden of Martin Odegaard’s absence while also interchanging with Kai Havertz up top, and truth be told, he isn’t doing either of those tasks well at all.

He was on the pitch for 82 minutes last night, and it’s hard to think of a single positive thing he did to help the North Londoners get forward in attack.

While it might sound exceptionally harsh, content creator Alex Moneypenny summed it up best when he described the 29-year-old as being essentially “useless” in the role he’s currently playing.

Unsurprisingly, the Standard’s Smith was equally unimpressed on the night and opted to hand the 39-capped international a 4/10 as well, writing that ‘Arsenal need more from the man effectively replacing Odegaard’s spark.’

While punchy, these opinions are backed up by the attacker’s statistics, as in his 82 minutes of action, the Waterschei-born star took 51 touches but produced an expected goals figure of just 0.02, took one shot which was off target, played just two key passes when the creative burden was on him, didn’t play a single long ball, attempted just one dribble and maintained a passing accuracy of 86%.

Ultimately, it’s not been a good few weeks for Trossard, and while he’s an undeniably talented player, he may well have just played himself out of the team for Sunday, especially as Ethan Nwaneri has looked good whenever he’s played for the team, and Odegaard might be fit enough to feature.