Leicester 0-2 Arsenal: Match report & 4 talking points from late Gunners goal burst | OneFootball

FROM KING POWER STADIUM - A late brace from Mikel Merino earned an uninspiring Arsenal a 2-0 victory away to Leicester City on Saturday lunchtime.

A drab 80 minutes preceded a quick-fire burst from the second-half substitute, who was shunted into an unfamiliar centre-forward role in the absence of any senior Arsenal striker.

A much-needed victory for the Gunners closed the gap behind league leading Liverpool to just four points before the Reds take on Wolves on Sunday. Leicester, by contrast, remain on the wrong side of the dotted line.

How the game unfolded

"The difference between us and Arsenal is big," Leicester boss Ruud van Nistelrooy admitted pre-game. "You look at the table and it is clear." A look at the match which unfolded at the King Power Stadium did not point to such a large chasm.

Leicester dragged Arsenal down to their level - and the injury-ravaged Gunners showed little resistance during this downward slide.

A dreary first half was peppered with a couple of scooped passes from Martin Odegaard which Leandro Trossard conspired to squander. It took until the final minute of stoppage time for the groggy crowd to belatedly splutter into life when Wilfred Ndidi headed narrowly wide. But the half-time whistle swiftly halted any chance for that momentum to build.

Ethan Nwaneri offered Arsenal's most consistent threat. The 17-year-old rapidly established that he had the beating of Victor Kristiansen after slipping the ball between his legs in the opening exchanges and scarcely let any onlooker forget it.

After a rare forced turnover - there was an abundance of unprompted errors which went unpunished - Nwaneri scooted infield and clipped a shot which veered narrowly past the top corner, kissing the crossbar on its way into the stands on the hour mark. The prodigious teen made a meatier connection with the woodwork 15 minutes later, but was denied once again.

As Arsenal pushed in search of an equaliser - sending Merino up front as part-striker part-human battering ram - they left themselves open in transition. A desperate toe-end from Myles Lewis-Skelly stopped Bobby De Cordova-Reid from capping off one such break with a tap-in at the back post.

Merino eventually provided the breakthrough. Walking onto the umpteenth inviting cross which Nwaneri effortlessly arced into the box, the midfielder produced a signature prodigious leap to head Arsenal in front with less than ten minutes of normal time remaining.

The converted midfielder struck again in the 87th minute to wrap up proceedings. Keeping pace with Trossard as Arsenal belatedly found room to counter into, Merino coolly controlled a venomous low cross into the bottom corner.

Check out our player ratings for Leicester vs Arsenal here.

Mikel Merino stakes his claim

Mikel Merino climbed highest on Saturday / Michael Regan/GettyImages

After the severity of Kai Havertz's injury was revealed, the days leading up to Arsenal's first striker-less outing were awash with suggested alternatives. Would Sterling reprise the false nine role from his City days? Could Trossard cope with the pressure. Riccardo Calafiori and centre-back William Saliba were even put forward.

The towering presence of Merino, flanked by Trossard and Nwaneri - who provided his two goals - may be the solution going forward. An aerially dominant force, the Spaniard lacks the subtlety of Havertz and doesn't have Gabriel Jesus' skill, but hinted at a clinical edge which both those players have consistently lacked.

Merino entered the field with an almost embarrassed shrug, laughing as he took up his position as an orthodox number nine. He left the pitch to the sound of a noisy away end bellowing out his name.

Skittish Sterling struggles

Raheem Sterling was making a rare Premier League start / Michael Regan/GettyImages

Midway through the first half, as Sterling was flagged for offside after mistiming a straightforward dart, the cameras caught Jorginho covering his face in despair on Arsenal's bench.

Sterling approached the game - the 389th of his Premier League career - gripped by the jangling medley of hesitation and overeagerness reserved for trialists.

A lack of match rhythm is to be expected for a player who hasn't start consecutive league games since October. But a basic neglect for the offside rule is less forgivable. After dribbling the ball straight out of play on multiple occasions, Sterling seemed to have lost all confidence in his ability to even complete a simple pass. He wasn't the only one.

By the time he was hooked in the 69th minute, it felt like an act of mercy from Arteta.

Rice overcooked in dual-role

Declan Rice had more scope to roam on Saturday / Catherine Ivill - AMA/GettyImages

"We are going to have to be creative," Arteta warned when confronted with his sparse forward options this week. The identity of the front three was rarely in question - Sterling, Trossard and Nwaneri are the only forward-thinking warm bodies in the building at the moment - but Arteta tweaked his setup to ensure that the formidable presence of Rice was an added factor to deal with.

The tireless midfielder bounded around the King Power with the manic energy of a dog let off the lead. Rice's industry can never be called into question, but so often he lacked the dexterity needed to find those rapidly vanishing gaps in the final third of a Premier League pitch.

Try as he might, Rice cannot be in two places at once. By shunting him further up the pitch, Arteta isolated Thomas Partey at the base of midfield, inadvertently highlighting a particularly disjointed and almost dozy display from the pivot.

Leicester gripped by apathy rather than anger

Leicester fans produced - and quickly whisked away - a critical banner / Catherine Ivill - AMA/GettyImages

The fan protest planned for the 14th minute - a nod to the botched arrival of Adrien Silva in 2017 when Leicester missed the deadline by 14 seconds - fizzled out faster than the pre-game pyrotechnic display.

The diluted jeers were simply a reflection of the flat atmosphere sweeping across the stadium for this subdued lunchtime kick-off. But could you blame them? It has been more than two months since they saw their side score a Premier League home goal - in that time, the opposition have found the net on 11 occasions. By failing to score once again, the Foxes became just the fourth side in English top-flight history to lose five consecutive home games while drawing a blank.

Southampton may have locked the door to the basement, but there is every chance that Leicester follow them out of the division.