Mikel Arteta transfer regret as former Arsenal star scores second hat-trick in two weeks
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta turned to midfielder Mikel Merino against Leicester City with four attackers absent through injury. Leandro Trossard, Ethan Nwaneri and Raheem Sterling started as the front three with the latter replaced by Merino in the second half.
Very quickly it became clear that the Spaniard was up top and it proved to be an Arteta masterstroke as he scored twice in just six minutes. The first of those was a superb header from an Ethan Nwaneri cross with his second a smart finish after a precise Leandro Trossard pass.
With Kai Havertz, Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka all unavailable because of hamstring issues, Arteta may need to utilise Merino far more often as part of his front three. Despite the fees acquired, selling Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah, while also letting Reiss Nelson depart on loan, has seemingly come back to bite the Gunners.
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Mika Biereth was another attacker sold by Arsenal this past summer as he completed a permanent transfer to Sturm Graz after an excellent loan spell in Austria. The 22-year-old contributed to 16 goals in as many games during the first half of the season which saw AS Monaco take an interest.
The French club bought Folarin Balogun from Arsenal the previous summer after his bright loan spell at Reims. With the USMNT star struggling for minutes and form, Monaco turned to north London academy stars again with Biereth sold for just over £10million which saw Arsenal take in a seven-figure fee after inserting a sell-on clause in his exit.
Despite swapping the Austrian Bundesliga for Ligue 1, Biereth has continued scoring seven goals and one assist from his first seven appearances. The bulk of those goals have actually arrived in two games with Biereth bagging a hat-trick in the 4-2 win over Auxerre earlier this month.
He then followed that up by scoring three again, this time in a stunning 7-1 victory over Nantes. Though his impressive goal-scoring rate and Arsenal's injury crisis could not have been foreseen, hindsight is proving it to be a transfer Arteta may well regret.
