First thigns first, how about that Mikel Merino bagging himself another goal in what sounds like an absolutely mental international game last night, eh?

I saw the goal as it did the rounds on social media last night and it was a well worked piece and a very fine finish from our Spaniard. For somebody who never played striker before he was shunted in to the role against Leicester earlier this year, his adaptation to that position has been quite impressive indeed. I know he didn’t play that role last night, as he was operating on the left of what looked like a 4-3-3 for Spain (didn’t watch, just looking at a few data points online), but the advanced positions he finds himself in and the fact he stroked the ball away like a seasoned centre forward is impressive.

It was a bit of a stuttery start for Merino due to that freak injury at the start of last season, but as he became an enforced regular in the side, he came up with some really impressive finishes and by the end of it I found myself thinking what a good player he was, rather than what he gives to the Arsenal team. For the first half of the season I was a bit *Alan Patridge shoulder shrug emoji* about his role; he seemed to just be a bit of a ‘fill in guy’ for when we had injuries. Which, as it turned out last season, happened to be quite a lot; he played 44 times and racked up 2,600+ minutes in an Arsenal shirt. His versatility was clearly why Mikel wanted him, but also his ability to clearly adapt and learn to his surroundings makes you realise why Mikel was so hot on him last summer. He’s played a bit as a right eight, a left eight, plus – as we all know – as a centre forward, with nine goals and five assists bagged in his first season at the club. That’s a pretty decent return and when you think he bagged five goals in the Premier League as a centre forward, he proved his value in more than what I thought he’d be – a guy who is going to box crashing and bag headed goals.

How much game time he gets next season will be interesting, especially if we’d going to sign a striker, wide forward and Zubimendi in at six. It means he might find his time a little more limited but if he continues to put in performances and if he continues to be as useful across a wide array of positions, Mikel will definitely be using him plenty next season.

One player we might sign, but won’t use a lot, will be that chap Kepa from Chelsea. My first response when I heard that rumour was “what? Another bloody Chelsea player?? WHY???” but then I checked myself a little when reading up on the terms of that deal. It’s clear that we need a back up goalie. Neto goes back to Bournemouth after a grand total of four appearances and one absolutely crazy brain-fart moment in the Champions League that he got away with. He’s 35 and basically nearly never played all season. So the reality is that we don’t need somebody to come in play much football.

Kepa has just had a decent enough season for Bournemouth, but let’s be honest, he’s a guy who has been liable to throw one in his own net at times whilst at Chelsea. That’s where my initial reservation comes in, but when I hear that he has a £5million release clause and I think about how little Neto played, I kind of feel like this feels like a sensible move for essentially peanuts, that is a decent back up and I’m kinda ok with it. The real question will be whether Kepa himself would be ok with it. He’s just played 35 games for Bournemouth and might fancy a taste of more football at the age of 30. If he comes to The Arsenal Arteta might chuck him some League Cup games and some FA Cup games depending on how far we progress, but that’s about it. So if he’s coming to us it’s really so he can hope he claims a medal or two before his career ends. He’s been in the Real Madrid (!) squad that won the Champions League the season before last, then also in the La Liga team that won the Spanish title that same season too. He played 20 games in all competitions. He was also in that Chelsea team that won the Champions league against City, although he was a back up there too. So he’s no stranger to it, but the question remains whether he fancies that at all. I have my doubts.

But if Arsenal do that deal I think most Arsenal fans won’t bat an eyelid. We need a back up, he’s experienced, hopefully he won’t play much and we can focus our transfer kitty on more important outfield places. Feels like a bit of a no brainer. Plus, there’s no faffing around with this one if the player does want to join The Arsenal; we’ve quite enjoyed not messing around and paying release clauses in the recent past, it looks like we’re doing the same with Zubimendi this summer (fingers crossed), so this is a low-hassle deal that can mean other priorities are focused on. Get it done, move on to other things, Arsenal.

What those other things are remains to be seen. We are still waiting for any movement in other bigger deals but now that Zubimendi has finished his UEFA Nations League game with Spain last night, I suspect he’ll go have his medical, get some pictures taken, then jet off for a bit of holiday before re-joining us at the beginning of July for pre season training.

And until then, we wait for other news, like a striker, or maybe a cheeky Rodrygo, although I suspect that’ll be a slow burner, if all of the noises coming out last night from different sources are to be believed. So I’m going to park that for now and wish you all a wonderful Friday. Catch you tomorrow.

**Update**

literally as soon as I finished today’s musings, Big Gabi was announced as signing a new deal!

Will get to that with some thoughts tomorrow.