Arsenal drew against Everton on Saturday to end the fleeting hopes of beating Liverpool to the Premier League title; the Reds will move 16 points clear at the summit should they beat Fulham at Craven Cottage.
However, Mikel Arteta’s side are still likely to finish second for the third season running, with attention now turned toward Tuesday evening’s Champions League clash against Real Madrid.
Hosting Los Blancos – who lost at home to Valencia on Saturday – before travelling to Spain one week later, Arteta rested a host of his stars, but there was one man who played from the outset at Goodison Park who will hope to reprise their berth in midweek.
Indeed, Leandro Trossard opened the scoring with a cool finish, latching onto Raheem Sterling’s pass.
Leandro Trossard's performance vs Everton
Trossard has ebbed and flowed somewhat this season, but he came up with the goods on Merseyside, ending a nine-game barren run in the Premier League with his strike past Jordan Pickford.
Starting in the centre-forward spot, the Belgian will hope to keep his starting role against Carlo Ancelotti’s intimidating outfit, with one football analyst noting that his ability to shoot from multiple areas with both feet makes him “unstoppable.”
Playing the talismanic role well, Trossard got off three shots, hitting the target twice, while also seeing plenty of action with 46 touches and completing 90% of his passes, as per Sofascore.
Maintaining fluency will be important against a Real Madrid side who are susceptible defensively. To be sure, with Bukayo Saka and maybe Gabriel Martinelli installed on either attacking flank, supplied by Martin Odegaard behind, Arsenal have enough firepower to do some damage.
While Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus remain sidelined, there is, of course, another man whose skills have been called upon in the final third recently.
He put in an industrious display against Everton and will be looking to start against Madrid.
The Arsenal star reaching "cult status"
While Arteta will be working closely with new sporting director Andrea Berta to make improvements in the transfer market this summer, some of Edu’s signings from last year have come up trumps at times this season.
Mikel Merino is chief among them.
The Spaniard, who joined from Real Sociedad for a £32m fee in August 2024, scored five goals from eight games as a makeshift centre-forward to combat the club’s injury woes.
But he returned to the middle of the park against Everton, something that added more mettle and crunch to Arteta’s engine room. Given that Trossard scored, too, it feels like it was a good move from the Gunners gaffer.
Indeed, Merino’s duelling success is truly a thing to behold. Standing at 6 foot 2 and expertly using his frame, he is one of football’s foremost aerial experts.
Praised for covering multiple areas of the field by The Daily Mail, who also heralded his efforts in the duel, Merino blended his fighting spirit with a willingness to drive the play forward, as evidenced by the data below.
Trossard might have got the goal, but Merino offered a lot more in regard to his overall performance. Everton, let’s not forget, are a different beast with Moyes back at the helm, and having such steel in the middle of the park was always going to be imperative.
Touches
48
Passes completed
26/31 (84%)
Touches in att. pen
4
Possession won
6x
Successful take-ons
1
Tackles
3
Duels won
14/17
Arsenal podcaster Matt Kendala even remarked before the game that Merino is “approaching cult status” with his recent performances, a “mentality monster” who has been “emptying the tank for the team.”
His combativeness and attacking instinct make for a dynamic and dangerous player, and you wouldn’t put it past him to nick an all-important goal across the two-legged Champions League tie coming right up.
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