“I can’t ask for any more from the players in terms of commitment and spirit and the physical performance they put in, the way they are playing together and stopping this Arsenal team from playing and scoring for an awful long time, creating ourselves and playing the way we want to play, going direct when we couldn’t.
Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli are also out, meaning Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta deployed a makeshift front three that required a rejig as the Premier League title-chasers sought to find a way past lowly Leicester.
As Arsenal kept the pressure on Premier League leaders Liverpool, a ninth loss in 10 league games left Ruud van Nistelrooy’s men with an all too familiar sinking feeling.
Mikel Merino promised to keep doing whatever Arsenal need after overcoming his initial shock at being thrown on as a makeshift striker to score a match-winning double at Leicester.
Merino only needed 21 minutes to double his tally for the season, having scored twice in his previous 26 appearances for Arsenal since joining from Real Sociedad.
