MIKEL MERINO made the switch to Arsenal because they are “obsessed” with winning trophies.
The Spaniard joined the Gunners from Real Sociedad for £32m on August 27 – but fractured his shoulder in his first training session two days later in a freak collision.
After a frustrating recovery period, 28-year-old midfielder Merino finally made his debut off the bench in Tuesday night’s 2-0 Champions League victory at home to PSG.
Merino is now in line to make his Premier League debut on Saturday against Southampton – a huge boost for boss Mikel Arteta with skipper Martin Odegaard still out injured.
And in his first interview as an Arsenal player, Merino explained: “Winning trophies is the main thing here for everybody. They are obsessed with that.
“You can see that winning is the main thing for us. That is something that helped me a lot to decide where I wanted to be.
“The mentality that they have here is amazing, not only on the pitch, but at the training ground and how they focus on the single things, the details, the basics.
“When I spoke to Mikel and I saw what was the plan, not only with me but the whole team, what was the culture, I felt this was the right place to be to take the next step in my career.
“I want to grow up, I want to learn even more – and I think this is the right place to keep improving and keep winning.”
Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz both scored in the first half to give Arteta’s Arsenal their first Euro win after drawing 0-0 away to Atalanta in their Champions League opener last month.
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Merino came on in the 64th minute against the Parisians and showed glimpses of what he will bring with some neat touches and key sliding challenges.
He suffered his unfortunate injury during a training session at London Colney while competing for the ball with new teammate Gabriel.
He attempted to carry on but the pain was too much and scans showed he had fractured his scapula. Merino explained: “It was such an unlucky moment.
“If you see the action… I haven’t seen an injury like this ever in my career. It was really tough mentally to be honest.
“You want to have a nice few days to show everybody what you are capable of, to show why they have put faith in you and then the first thing that happens is you break your scapula.
“But, well, these are things that happen. Obviously it was not the best timing, but at the same time I like to look at the pros, the bright side of it.
“This gave me a lot of time to think, to get to know my teammates, to get to know the staff, to work on myself, the things that I need to do in terms of tactics, in terms of physicality.
“I am a much better player now than I was four weeks ago.”
By Dan King
UEFA sold the idea of expanding the Champions League from 32 to 36 teams, with each playing eight games instead of six in the opening phase, as a way of creating more competitiveness and excitement.
The biggest clubs would have two matches against their peers, rather than having to wait until the knockout stage to meet.
The smaller clubs would meet teams of a similar level twice and have a chance of tasting victory that was so hard to achieve if you were the bottom seed in a group of four.
Ignoring for a moment the fact that the real motivation was the simple equation of more games = more money, the theory itself already looks flawed.
None of the matches between European giants has delivered a compelling contest yet.
And why would they? At the start of the long season with more matches in it, why would any team with ambitions to win things in the spring, go out all guns blazing in the autumn?
Especially when they know they have six games NOT against big sides to make sure they accrue enough points to qualify at least for the play-off round (and even more games).
There is even less jeopardy than before.
Read the full column on the Champions League format fail and why everyone – including YOU – needs a rethink.
