Merino will probably be out until after the second international break. Bournemouth October 20th looks like a likely return game. The good thing is that only covers five PL matches, including tomorrow's tilt against Brighton in which he was never likely to feature. The bad thing is that run includes trips to Spurs and City and he would have been a very useful player to have available for those fixtures.
In other news, we signed Sterling on loan, apparently with very favorable conditions. I think this is a pretty solid option given the dearth of top level attacking talent available on the market this summer. He can give us much better coverage than Nelson at RW while also competing with Martinelli/Trossard for LW minutes. And he can cover CF in a pinch if necessary as well.
Perhaps just as importantly, a loan keeps our financial powder dry and an attacking squad spot open next summer, which is shaping up to be a huge one in terms of top level attacking players moving clubs (Wirtz, Williams, Openda, Sesko will very likely move then, quite possibly also a few of Khvaratskhelia, Leao, Rodryo, Isak). I think the long term plan is to go big on another attacker and that plan still seems well on track.
All in all, it was a really successful window that leaves us stronger. A big problem last year was that Arteta's circle of trust simply didn't extend to enough players, so he had to ride some guys way too hard. Compared to last year’s squad in terms of field players, we have replaced six players Arteta didn’t trust and simply didn’t want to use for any fixture that mattered:
Nketiah
Smith-Rowe
Nelson
Vieira
Elneny
Cedric
With four very good players Arteta will be willing to play in any fixture and two ultra talented teenagers that still need to earn trust but who he clearly rates:
Calafiori
Timber (not a new signing, but still an addition to the squad)
Merino
Sterling
Nwaneri
Lewis-Skelly
That’s a huge improvement to our effective squad depth.
