Merino steps up again as a striker to fire Arsenal to another Champions League win | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal overcame a striker crisis to deservedly lead the Champions League table with four wins from four matches.  

Stand-in captain Bukayo Saka and stand-in forward Mikel Merino scored as the Premier League early pace setters won 3-0 against Slavia Prague with seven potential starters, including all three of their recognised strikers, out injured.

Like Arsenal, the Czech champions are defensively sound, having not conceded in their previous five games, unbeaten in the league this season and undefeated here, at the Fortuna Arena, since a domestic cup defeat to Sigma Olomouc in early April.

Prague were more than a match for Arsenal early on too. But the game took a dramatic turn after just over half an hour when fussy Azerbaijan referee Aliyar Aghayev intervened, with the help of a pitch-side monitor, to award Arsenal a penalty for a penalty for a dubious handball. Gabriel tried to head in a near post Saka corner and the ball seemed to hit Lukas Provod’s hand accidentally before it deflected over the bar.

There is little nuance in Champions League officiating, however, and accident or not, Saka was gifted the chance to score his fifth goal of the season. He had taken three shots on target in the 10 minutes before scoring so had his sights well set to finish this time.

Barely 30 seconds into the second half, Merino volleyed Arsenal into a two-goal lead. Leandro Trossard worked himself some space on the left wing and clipped a cross towards the near post, where Merino timed a perfect run to finish with a neat first-time volley.

The Spain international midfielder, deputising for the in-form Viktor Gyokeres, then headed in his second on 68 minutes when he glanced in a curling Declan Rice pass.

That third Arsenal goal gave Arteta the confidence to make some changes with Saturday’s huge Premier League trip to Sunderland in mind. One of them was 15-year-old schoolboy Max Dowman, who became the competition’s youngest ever player when he replaced for the final 20 minutes.

An 87th minute penalty scare threatened to ruin Arsenal’s defensive run, but this time the referee rightly overruled his own decision after a check of the replays.