Arsenal travel to the East Midlands to face Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on Wednesday night, and Mikel Arteta has a huge team selection decision to make.
Spirits are low amongst Gunners supports, after Arsenal slumped to a dire defeat at home to West Ham on the weekend.
The result all but put an end to Arteta’s side’s pursuit of the Premier League title, as Liverpool beat Manchester City on Sunday to move eleven points clear.
Another defeat on Wednesday would bury any remaining hope of mounting a remarkable comeback on this front.
Forest have suffered back-to-back Premier League defeats in their last two matches for the first time since November, potentially giving Arsenal hope that there’s some vulnerability there for them to exploit.
Mikel Arteta should start Mikel Merino over Thomas Partey against Nottingham Forest
Mikel Merino saved the day for Arsenal against Leicester, coming on for the final 20 minutes and scoring twice.
This prompted Arteta to trust the Spanish midfielder to start in this role against West Ham, and it certainly didn’t work.
He looked clunky when receiving the ball with his back to goal, while he struggled with understanding where to position himself inside the box when Arsenal were probing in the final third.
Clearly not suiting him, Arteta should resort to a tried and tested system on Wednesday against Forest, and start Leandro Trossard up front.
The Belgian’s tendency to drop deep or peel out wide meant Arsenal lacked a focal point when he was deployed as the number nine at the King Power Stadium.
However, Arsenal have an excellent record when Trossard starts as a striker for them in the Premier League.
| Arsenal’s record with Leandro Trossard starting as a striker in the Premier League | |
| Matches | 10 |
| Wins | 9 |
| Draws | 1 |
| Losses | 0 |
| Goals For | 31 |
| Goals Against | 4 |
The former Brighton man as a centre-forward has worked previously when Arsenal have had midfield runners focusing on getting into the box and filling the space Trossard often vacates.
On the rare occasions that we saw the 30-year-old down the middle in the 2022/23 season, Martin Odegaard was constantly breaking into the opposition penalty area and getting into good goal-scoring positions – evidenced by the fact that the Norwegian finished the season with 15 non-penalty goals.
Last campaign, it was Kai Havertz who was deployed as the man to provide the box presence when Trossard led the line.
Against Leicester, Rice was tasked with taking this mantle, but this simply isn’t a skill that is part of the Englishman’s repertoire.
However, Merino excels in this aspect of the game, with the timing of his runs from deep and his ability to arrive at the end of moves one of his biggest attributes.
Thus, Arteta should start the Euro 2024 winner as the left eight and experiment with this dynamic with Trossard as the nine.
This will subsequently allow Rice to drop back into the six, where he can mop up Forest transitions more effectively than Thomas Partey was able to against West Ham, with the Ghanaian dropping to the bench for this encounter.
Arsenal are moving away from Thomas Partey
Partey is expected to leave Arsenal when his contract expires at the end of the season, and thus it makes sense for Arteta to begin to move away from him.
The ex-Atletico Madrid man has started 22 of Arsenal’s 26 Premier League matches this season (86%), but has shown visible signs of decline from the 2022/23 campaign – the last time he played a prominent role.
Evidently less athletic, Partey’s underlying numbers have also rapidly declined.
| Partey’s Premier League Statistics | ||
| Stat | 2022/23 | 2024/25 |
| Appearances | 33 | 25 |
| Goals | 3 | 3 |
| Assists | 0 | 2 |
| Pass Accuracy | 87.2% | 87.7% |
| Key Passes per 90 | 0.94 | 0.67 |
| Progressive Passes per 90 | 8.37 | 6.25 |
| Tackles per 90 | 2.54 | 3.17 |
| Interceptions per 90 | 1.01 | 1.21 |
While his defensive output has increased, which probably indicates that he has less trust in his body as he’s stepping up earlier to make defensive actions, the progressive passing numbers are the most concerning.
Zipping the ball in between the lines used to be Partey’s superpower, but he’s now averaging two fewer progressive passes per 90, adding significantly less value to Arteta’s team than he used to regarding ball progression.
Forest should represent the beginning of the end of his role in the side.
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