Take a bow Mikel Merino son! He bagged himself a hat trick for Spain last night and the second one in particular looked like a really good strike. Naturally that kind of output and the fact he also scored in their last game against Bulgaria has you thinking about his life in an Arsenal shirt and I saw somebody today say that Arteta should be moving him to centre forward. He is such a versatile guy, his Spanish coach even said it last night in the post match interviews, but I think most Arsenal fans recognise that it isn’t exactly an experiment we want to see more of.

You can’t deny his output though. He got two assists in the Bernabeu, he scored in the first leg, he had a goal ruled out for offside in the home tie against PSG and when he was asked to play as a centre forward last season he bagged four goals in six games in the Premier League. Last season in all competitions for Arsenal he had nine goals and five assists in 2,600+ minutes and for a guy who is ostensibly a midfielder, that is pretty impressive, it has to be said. But there’s so many of us – me included – who still can’t quite work out what sort of player he is. At Anfield he operated in the Odegaard role but one could hardly say he excelled at it. We know what characteristics he brings to the football field – he’s physical, wins duels and has a high interception and recovery rate, is good in the air, scores goals and finds spaces in the final third to get those shots away. He’s 100% not a defensive midfielder. He’s not that suited to the creative Odegaard role either. Nor is he truly a centre forward. So what is he?

Maybe that is his super power and maybe that’s what will ensure he gets minutes in an Arsenal shirt when many of us thought he might struggle this season. In a team that has had its fair share of injury worries, Merino and his ability to play multiple positions makes him a valuable asset to Arteta. Will he get another 2,600+ minutes this season? I suspect that is less likely, but you never know.

Along with him in Turkey was David Raya who didn’t get on, as well as Martin Zubimendi, who played 71 minutes before being replaced by Rodri. There’s no suggestion that it was injury-related, so I suspect it was just a planned change and that hopefully means the Spanish lads can make their way home today with their limbs in tact. So too can Jurrien Timber it seems, who got 20+ minutes last night as the Netherlands beat Lithuania away, whilst Leo Trossard also started and played just over an hour for Belgium as they smashed six past Kazahkstan. No goals or assists for him though.

Today we’ll get Big Vik playing before he can head home, as Sweden are in Kosovo, whilst Calafiori and his Italian teammates travel to Israel in a game I think every Arsenal fan will be praying we don’t hear bad news. He’s been in fine form in an Arsebal shirt since the season started and I watched a really good tactical video on the Goonerverse channel yesterday about how Declan Rice is dropping down alongside Zubimendi to form a double pivot, whilst Calafiori pushes up and becomes one of the attacking players. It will be interesting to see what Arteta does when he wants to rotate in MLS, because so far he’s barely seen the green of the football pitch, playing just 44 minutes in all three games. Will Mikel give Myles the same instructions when he is on the field as he gives Ricci? Or does that left back role change when Lewis-Skelly is starting. Myles tends to be somebody – based on what I saw last season – who likes to drift in to that midfield role and occupy the position that was pointed out in the above video that Rice was taking up as that double pivot with Zubimendi. MLS also likes to carry the ball from that left midfield-just-inside-our-half space too. Is he going to be given instructions to play further up the pitch and a little wider to match Calafiori if the Italian picks up a knock, or is naturally rotated to protect him? That we don’t know, but if we don’t know, it also means Premier League analysts probably don’t know either, which as I’ve said already so far this season, makes us a little more unpredictable. I hope.

There are also going to be some under-21 matches played with England playing this afternoon and that means Nwaneri will get his chance. There’s no space for Max Dowman though, as he’s playing in the under-19s for England and breaking yet more records. I did wonder if they would fast track him into the U-21s and I think I’ve even seen Tuchel suggest he will be keeping an eye on him for England, but from an Arsenal perspective I guess the club just need to ensure they keep on keeping his feet on the ground. There’s still a lot of adrenaline and hype when it comes to Dowman at the moment and although I don’t like to link to that radio station TalkSport, there was a short snippet with Martin O’Neill where he talked about how he didn’t think Dowman would be getting that much game time this season, which I agree with. We have a super deep and competitive squad and although Dowman got on against Liverpool and made his debut against Leeds, I suspect what we will see as the season wears on, is a bit of dust settling and the kid will not have the same level of impact as he’s had with the football just kicking off in this last month. This isn’t me saying he’s not extremely talented, this isn’t me saying that I don’t think he’s good enough, I just think that we’re all super excited about him right now and when that excitement dies down he’ll have one or two games in which he won’t make an impact and I think we’ll all realise that “hey, turns out this kid is 15” kind of moment. Which is absolutely fine.

Anyway, I’ll leave it there today, then catch you in the comments and online.