Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has defended his £32m signing Mikel Merino following criticism from Jamie Carragher.
Merino signed a four-year cope with the Gunners after finishing a big-money transfer from La Liga aspect Actual Sociedad final summer time.
The 28-year-old has began only a third of Arsenal’s Premier League video games this season and Carragher not too long ago questioned Arteta’s transfer for the Spaniard.
Writing in a column for The Telegraph earlier this month, Carragher mentioned: ‘Prioritising signing midfielder Mikel Merino forward of one other attacker final summer time seems to be like a mistake. Merino just isn’t a game-changer.’
Carragher additionally questioned Arsenal’s £32m deal on a current episode of The Overlap, saying: ‘I have a look at the enterprise you probably did in the summertime and the midfielder who got here in, I wasn’t fairly positive why or the place he would slot in or play.’
However Arteta believes Merino has been displaying some ‘excellent’ indicators in current weeks and says the midfielder has been ‘fairly unlucky’ with accidents since arriving on the Emirates Stadium.
Merino missed Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Wolves on Saturday however returned to coaching earlier this week forward an enormous Premier League conflict with Manchester Metropolis this weekend.
‘He’s been fairly unlucky, to be trustworthy,’ Arteta mentioned at his pre-Champions League press convention on Tuesday night. ‘However Mikel’s character is unbelievable.
‘He’s so decided and now he has some rhythm, some momentum and has had some excellent moments in the previous couple of weeks with us.
‘Sadly he had somewhat niggle nevertheless it was nothing critical, however we play each two and a half days so that you miss two matches. He’s match once more and out there and it’s nice to have him within the group.’
Arsenal conclude their promising Champions League group marketing campaign in opposition to Girona on Wednesday evening. The Gunners are third within the 36-strong desk forward of the ultimate spherical of group video games.
‘We’re right here to win the sport and in an effort to try this we’re going to should be higher than them,’ Arteta mentioned.
‘They’re a extremely good aspect, when you have a look at the video games they’ve performed within the Champions League in opposition to prime opposition, they’ve made life very tough for them.
‘So tomorrow will probably be a really robust group in an effort to obtain what we need to do as a result of mathematically the qualifying in the intervening time is unsure.’
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