Myles Lewis-Skelly did not hesitate when a Premier League interviewer asked which Arsenal teammate he thinks is the most underrated.
“The most underrated? Mikel, Mikel Merino. 100 per cent, man. That guy there, I don’t feel like he gets the credit he deserves,” Lewis-Skelly said.
The 20-year-old reached for football intelligence rather than any statistic to explain the pick.
“The way he sees football, it’s really good to learn from. He should get the props he deserves.”
Read also: Endrick is staying in Madrid, his agency insists as Milan plot a January loan
“The desire to score, the positions, where to be on the field. I feel like he always knows where to be, when to be there. That’s something as a football player, that’s everything.”
Lewis-Skelly has already been asking the Spaniard for the detail.
“Even today, I was speaking to him about how he scores so many goals because I want to learn and add that to my game,” he told the Premier League.
A bench role at Arsenal and with Spain
Mikel Merino joined Arsenal from Real Sociedad in the summer of 2024 for a reported £27m and has 16 goals and eight assists in 85 appearances for the club.
Read also: Van Dijk on City’s visit: ‘These are the games every player looks forward to’
The minutes have dried up this season. He is yet to start a Premier League match in 2026-27, having featured in only 81 minutes across five substitute appearances.
Luis de la Fuente has arrived at the same frustration from a different direction. The Spain head coach sent Merino on at half-time against Croatia in Split on 7 October, watched him score twice, the equaliser just after the hour and the winner two minutes from time, after the hosts had been reduced to 10 men by Ivan Perisic’s red card, and then reached for a pointed line in his post-match press conference.
“In another country he would be more valued,” De la Fuente said. “Merino is one of the best in the world in his position.”
Havertz injury reopens the striker question
Lewis-Skelly’s compliment lands at the moment the squad logic may finally break Merino’s way. Kai Havertz pulled out of the Germany squad during the international break with a hamstring injury suffered against the Netherlands and is expected to miss several weeks, reopening the question of whether Merino, rather than Viktor Gyokeres, should lead the line.
Arsenal’s reigning Premier League champions have the stability off the pitch to match. On 7 October the club announced that Mikel Arteta had signed a new contract through to 2030, after guiding Arsenal to its first league title in 22 years last season.
