“When I lose a duel, I am upset,” yelled a furious Mikel Arteta at his players following an FA Cup loss to Nottingham Forest in 2022. The dressing-room scene, captured in All or Nothing, has been circulating again amid Arsenal’s interest in Mikel Merino.
Arteta has of course succeeded in raising the side’s competitive standards in the intervening years. But the qualities mentioned in that explosive dressing-down at the City Ground – commitment, focus, combativeness – remain his non-negotiables.
And they are typified by Mikel Merino.
The 28-year-old, a European Championship winner with Spain this summer, specialises in winning duels. In fact, last season with Real Sociedad, he won more of them than any other player in Europe’s top-five leagues. Nobody even got close to his total of 326.
It is worth noting that the next-highest player on the list, Newcastle’s Bruno Guimaraes, has also been a target for Arsenal in recent years. Evidently, duel-winning ability is something the club have been looking to add in their midfield.
It is not all Merino offers, either.
Standing at 6ft 2ins, continuing a theme of Arsenal targeting physically imposing players following the additions of Kai Havertz, Declan Rice and, most recently, Riccardo Calafiori, Merino boasts formidable aerial strength as well as a knack for stealing possession.
Julian Nagelsmann’s Germany found that out at the European Championship, when, following a late run into the box, another of Merino’s trademarks, he produced a towering header from Dani Olmo’s cross to clinch Spain’s semi-final spot in the penultimate minute of extra-time.
Merino, although not a regular starter for Luis de la Fuente’s side, would finish the tournament as one of only four players – along with Alvaro Morata, Lamine Yamal and Mikel Oyarzabal – to feature in all seven of Spain’s games as they lifted the trophy.
“I think that tournament was a good reflection of him,” Miguel Flaño, a former team-mate at his boyhood club Osasuna, tells Sky Sports.
“He is used to starting games and being very important for his club. But his role at the European Championship was something different. Although he wasn’t a starter, he showed a lot of humility, understanding he could still be important in another way.
“And as we saw, he was decisive, most of all with his goal against Germany but also in the games when he didn’t score. He just puts the team first and thinks about how he can help.”
Mikel Merino headed Spain’s winner in their quarter-final against Germany
Merino’s rise to prominence, albeit after difficult spells with Borussia Dortmund and Newcastle, is no surprise to Flaño, or anyone who knew him back at Osasuna, where, having broken into the team at 18, he was a key figure in their promotion to Spain’s top flight in 2016.
“He was the soul of the team, despite being very young,” Alfredo Sanchez, a former Osasuna player and assistant to Enrique Martin, the club’s manager at the time, tells Sky Sports.
“He had tremendous personality and, in football terms, what you see from him now is what he was then. Very active on his left foot, adaptable to different situations, he can pass, he can beat a man, he is strong in the air, and he knows when to arrive in the box.”
“Mikel was always a very complete player,” adds Flaño, another graduate of the club’s academy. “He is technically very good and he is tactically very intelligent because he understands football so well.
“His aerial game is valuable both in defensive and attacking set-pieces. He can really make the difference in those situations.
Merino in action for Real Sociedad against former club Osasuna
“And then, in terms of his mentality, he is a boy who doesn’t feel pressure and has the personality to step up in important games.”
Merino showed his appetite for the big moments with his winner against Germany in Stuttgart, celebrated in the style of his father, Angel, who scored for Osasuna in a European tie at the same ground 33 years earlier. But it has been apparent since his youth.
Indeed, it was only thanks to a run of six goals in eight games by Merino that Osasuna achieved their promotion in 2016, their midfield talisman helping them go up through the play-offs despite having already agreed to join Dortmund at the end of the campaign.
He is a boy who doesn’t feel pressure and has the personality to step up in important games
“He was incredible in those games,” recalls Sanchez. “Decisive,” is the word used by Flaño. “That was the year he exploded at Osasuna,” Flaño adds. “He attracted a lot of attention.”
It did not work out for him at Dortmund, where he struggled to win over Thomas Tuchel. Then, after joining Newcastle, a poorly-timed back injury stalled a bright start and left him below Jonjo Shelvey and Mohamed Diame in Rafael Benitez’s midfield pecking order.
But he is certainly attracting attention again now.
Merino, excellent over the course of a six-year spell at Real Sociedad, during which he has been consistent in terms of his availability as well as his level of performance, has drawn interest from Barcelona and Atletico Madrid this summer as well as Arsenal.
“You have to be very good in all facets of the game to reach the level where you have interest from so many big teams,” says Sanchez.
“We are talking about a top, top player.”
His role in Osasuna’s promotion-winning campaign was as the more attack-minded of two midfield pivots, encouraged to make runs into the box.
“He had been playing more like a No 10 before we arrived at the club but we felt he was uncomfortable there,” explains Sanchez. “We moved him back and found that role to be ideal for him.”
Merino has played mostly as a left-sided midfielder
It is the one he has subsequently fulfilled at Real Sociedad, though, as the left-sided No 8 in a midfield three, which is more probably more indicative of how he might be used at Arsenal.
Arteta’s 4-3-3 system is similar to Real Sociedad’s and the presence of captain Martin Odegaard, a player with whom Merino combined to good effect during the Norwegian’s loan spell from Real Madrid in 2019/20, adds another layer of familiarity.
The hope for Arsenal is that he could serve as a belated replacement for the departed Granit Xhaka, helping to restore the threat and fluency on their left side, together with Calafiori, while also allowing Rice to revert to his natural position at No 6.
Merino is not a like-for-like replacement for Xhaka. He is more physical and less technical. But his relatively low passing accuracy rate of 77 per cent at Real Sociedad can be explained, at least in part, by an inclination to take risks with his distribution.
Merino, although comfortable recycling possession and building the play slowly, prefers to direct the ball forward, something which could help Gabriel Martinelli, whose form dipped without Xhaka last term and who is most effective when running onto passes in behind.
Merino passing radar shows a high proportion of passes directed forwards
His character is likely another part of his appeal to Arteta.
Merino’s footballing upbringing took place in a region of Spain, Navarra, which borders Arteta’s native Basque Country and shares many of the same sporting principles.
“An Osasuna player is typically a hard-working, competitive profile,” explains Flaño, who spent time coaching in the club’s academy after his retirement as a player.
“We might not necessarily be brilliant players who stand out, but we are humble, reliable and consistent, and that generally ends up paying off in the long run. Mikel has those qualities but, of course, the other important thing is that he is brilliant as well.
“I think Arteta transmits the same things in the way he addresses the press and some of the comments he makes.
“You can feel that he really likes those kind of players, hard-workers who get around the pitch, who have passion, who are not showy or flashy but know how to compete and take care of the details.”
Merino’s competitive character made an impression on Sanchez too. “He gets a lot of yellow cards, because he has a lot of heart and he gives everything,” he says. “But that, coupled with his ability to defend and attack equally well, is how he has got where he is.”
It is partly for that reason that those who know him are in no doubt about his potential to succeed in England, despite his first spell in the Premier League with Newcastle proving short-lived.
“I think he was too young when the Newcastle opportunity came,” says Sanchez. “Different culture, different structure, different kick-off times. He experienced it all very young.
Merino made 25 appearances for Newcastle, scoring once
“I see him now as being much better prepared. He has a lot more experience, a lot more games under his belt both at club level and internationally, and his body is stronger too.
“I could see him doing well anywhere but I think he would be perfect for Arsenal, because of their system and their style, with a lot of possession and a lot of runs into the box. I think he would like that.
“And remember, we are talking about a top player who never hides.”
Arteta will have noted Merino is not one to shirk a duel either.