Arsenal 'obsessed with trophies' as Mikel Merino explains why he joined after debut

Mikel Merino says Arsenal are “obsessed” with winning trophies and that’s why he moved to north London. The summer signing made his debut as a substitute in Arsenal’s Champions League win over Paris Saint-Germain.

It had been a long time coming for the £32million midfielder because he had suffered a broken shoulder in his first training session after signing in August.

But Merino says he used the month off to learn Mikel Arteta’s methods and is convinced that it will deliver silverware.

The Spaniard said: “For sure, 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. 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.”

Merino has lauded Arteta’s innovative training techniques, saying: “It’s something that is amazing, to be honest with you. They do some things that I have never seen in my career. The methods they use are completely new to me, so obviously it takes some time to adapt.

“But at the same time, I think that when you get it, you are in a different level because they challenge you every single day – not only physically, but mentally. That makes you be sharp mentally and that’s what you are going to find out in the game.”

Despite suffering a bizarre injury during his initial training session, where he broke his shoulder colliding with Brazilian defender Gabriel, Merino feels the ordeal has ultimately fortified him.

Reflecting on the incident, he added: “It was really tough mentally to be honest. To come in here, 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.

“It is tough. It is tough to recover from that mentally. Everybody here in the club was really nice to me, really lovely, you could feel the love and support of everybody.

“Obviously that helped me a lot in the recovery and finally, I can say I am officially an Arsenal player now! I have made my debut and I am buzzing.”

Reflecting on a stroke of misfortune, the midfielder commented: “It was such an unlucky moment. If you see the action…it’s just…I mean…I haven’t seen an injury like this ever in my career.

“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 team-mates, 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 and I think I am a much better player now than I was four weeks ago.”