It’s so clear who Arsenal’s starting striker should be if Kai Havertz is injured
Kai Havertz went off with a hamstring injury on Thursday night during Germany’s 1-1 draw with Netherlands.
It left Arsenal fans panicking on social media and stirred some debate about how Mikel Arteta should set up the attack in his absence. David Ornstein has since provided an update on the severity of the injury scare, indicating that there is ‘optimism’ that it is not a serious setback.
Hopefully Havertz won’t be out for long, but the likelihood is he won’t be fit when Arsenal return to action against Leeds on 10 October. Viktor Gyokeres is the obvious solution to play in his stead, but the numbers say Arteta should revert to a different option.
Viktor Gyokeres vs Mikel Merino stats comparison
Mikel Merino is Arsenal’s most clutch player. Remarkably, 10 of his 11 Premier League goals have either put Arsenal ahead or been equalisers, showing just how much of a changing impact he can have. His two late winners for Spain at the World Cup were further proof of a player who delivers in the biggest moments.
Of course, the Spaniard is nominally a central midfield player, but the reality is that in over a quarter of his Arsenal appearances he has played as a centre-forward. He was used as an auxiliary striker during the back-half of the 2024-25 campaign, where Arsenal had no senior strikers fit and available.
He was also used there a number of times last season too, during a short portion of the season where Havertz, Gyokeres and Gabriel Jesus were all injured. That, ironically, coincided with arguably Arsenal’s best stretch of the season, which included the 4-1 win over Tottenham and the 3-1 Champions League victory over Bayern Munich.
The fact is, Merino has a really respectable record when playing as a striker — and it’s actually better than Gyokeres’. Across 23 games playing as a striker for Arsenal, Merino has scored 10 goals and provided six assists, yielding a goal involvement of 0.7 per game. Gyokeres, meanwhile, has 21 goals and three assists in 60 games for the Gunners — a rate of 0.4 goals and assists per game.
Mikel Merino should be Arsenal’s starting striker if Kai Havertz is injured
A lot gets said about Gyokeres maybe not being a great facilitator but he makes up for that by being a ‘pure goalscorer’. Well, judging off those numbers, Merino is an even better goalscorer. When you combine that with the fact that he is simply a much better facilitator than his Swedish counterpart, then the debate is really a non-starter.
Like Havertz, Merino is much more suited to Arteta’s system than Gyokeres. The Spaniard instinctively drops deep to link play, and creates space for the likes of Bukayo Saka, but he also has the technical quality to pick them out with passes. He actually brings a greater goal threat than Havertz too as he has a knack of arriving late into the box at exactly the right moment.
Gyokeres needs the ball served to him in behind and can get frustrated and sloppy with his lack of involvement. But Arsenal simply do not play that way, and it was clearly a recruitment error on Andrea Berta’s behalf. He came in and served his purpose, helping Arsenal over the line to win the league title. But it’s clear he’s not at the level for this team.
The scan results will determine how long Havertz is actually out, but if he misses Leeds, Arteta shouldn’t hesitate in picking Merino. The evidence is there.