Christian Norgaard: "Scoring looks natural to Merino"

By Alessandro Schiavone in Prague

Christian Norgaard has sung the praises of false attacker Mikel Merino who took his tally for 2025 to a staggering 18 goals for club and country with his double against Slavia Prague.

Those numbers would be nothing out of the ordinary or mind-blowing if the Spaniard was a classic centre-forward.

But it's easy to forget that the ex-Real Sociedad star is a midfielder by trade.

Norgaard, who made his first start for Arsenal in the Czech Republic, told Capital Football: "It looks so natural to him, I am really pleased that he got his two goals.

"It's a fantastic option to have a player that is so flexible and that can be play in so many positions.

"Once again he did amazing!"

On the Gunners' eight consecutive clean sheet and dogged defending since the start of the campaign, the Dane said: "We love to defend and when you look at our defenders and our goalkeeper in particular they look like some who really love to defend.

"It's something we can hopefully continue doing."