Mikel Merino (23)

We’ve assembled a team of absolute units lol, Arteta is a fucking psychopath

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Hopefully we can stay in touch with the top sides and then just fucking unleash our first choice midfield on the league. Crazy to think we are unbeaten and 2 points off the top without ever having played a game with our top 3 guys together.

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Let’s hope Merino is all that we expect him to be. So far, Mikel has been spot on with the players he’s bought, with the exception of Vieira, and some of the early ones (Mari, Tavares etc.) that I won’t count.

But like @Powderfinger mentioned, we might still be missing Odegaard by the time the next set of tougher fixtures come around (Liverpool, Newcastle, Chelsea). We have done well without Ode so far so there is no reason to think we can’t continue that. Also, I hope the likes of Nwaneri get some game time between now and then so he can be an option in those games.

Let’s hope Ode recovers sooner than expected. They didn’t really put a timeline on his injury did they?

1 Like

when is he back ?

jesus has also been a below average player for us. so yeah except Jesus and Vieira, we hvae been spot on

Jesus was good for us in the first season, as was Zinny for the most part. I think they helped us get where we are today.

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I still believe that there’s a useful player in Jesus. He looked sharp in pre-season. Hopefully he’ll start tomorrow night.

As for Merino, I think his return will be a week or two prior to Odegaard as the former didn’t have a lower body injury, it’s just a case of making sure the fracture has healed before he can do ball work again.

Could be back as soon as next week, according to Mr. Manager.

https://twitter.com/sr_collings/status/1839647554339795430

Love it.

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Excellent news. Can’t wait to see what he brings to the team. Can’t wait to see him, Ode and Rice starting in our midfield.

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I will absolutely never trust an Arteta fitness update.

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My resources tell me that his jump height has now grown to 3m. He bust his head through the ceiling, here we go!

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Season over then.

Looking forward to seeing him start for us. Hopefully, we can just get through the next couple of fixtures!

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https://x.com/afcstuff/status/1840785183727108586?s=46&t=eJpgg6uHWRsStnASv-OePg

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Dude is a unit. A bit unfair to have him training against that 12-year-old in the #5 shirt.

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should also be ease on G Jesus. We know how easy he can get injured.

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Just stay clear of big Gabi.

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whenever he sees Big Gabriel getting close, just yelled, “fuck off”

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One of the warm up drills from yesterday’s training was where players had to jog a short distance and jump into each other and do a shoulder bump. Never seen that in any training videos so far, maybe something introduced specifically for Merino.

Can’t believe we’re finally about to see him on the pitch!

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