Thrown on as an emergency striker due to Arsenal’s injury crisis, Merino scored twice in the final minutes to secure a vital win at Leicester.
The Arsenal fans serenaded Merino at the full-time whistle, singing his name continuously and this will comfortably go down as his best day in an Arsenal shirt.
Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli also have hamstring injuries and will not be back until next month, at the earliest, meaning Arsenal have just three fit forwards in Nwaneri, Leandro Trossard and Raheem Sterling.
Nwaneri was bright, perhaps Arsenal’s best player until Merino’s heroics, and twice the woodwork denied him.
When he signed for Arsenal in the summer, even Mikel Merino could not have dreamt he would enjoy an afternoon like this.
