Three Things We Learned after Arsenal hero Mikel Merino's late brace at Leicester 

Here's Ian Mills with the latest his series Three Things We Learned after Arsenal's late show beat Leicester 

Ethan Nwaneri shines as an impressive cameo from Mikel Merino seals the points in the East Midlands.

Here are three things that stood out for me, writes Ian Mills

1 - Ethan Nwaneri – the sky is the limit

-  In a game where we dominated possession yet created very little attacking threat it was again our youngest player who offered the most threat to the opposition goal.

He hit a fine shot that struck the crossbar then had another effort came back off the post.

It was somewhat fitting then that it was his excellent cross that was met with a fine header from Mikel Merino to break the deadlock.

The fact that Mikel Merino scored twice in an impressive cameo from the bench, yet Ethan Nwaneri still got the Man of the Match award was both telling and well deserved.

Nothing seems to faze him, and he can play in a variety of positions.

Without question we are missing a generational talent such as Bukayo Saka however Nwaneri has created such an impression that upon Saka’s return the question is no longer whether Nwaneri is the go to replacement for Saka, it is how we accommodate both in our starting line-up.

2 - A game of fine margins

– With the scores deadlocked at 0-0 and the game heading for a disappointing and for our title challenge, a potentially fatal draw, Leicester seized on a loose ball from Thomas Partey and broke quickly which led to a great chance for Bobby De Cordova-Reid yet Myles Lews-Skelly produced a tremendous defensive touch to divert the ball for a corner.

Had the home side taken the lead at that point it looked unlikely that we would find it in ourselves to rescue the game let alone win it.

Merino’s late goals that followed helped seal a vital victory.Is the Merino striker experiment here to stay

3 – Our front three that started this match was no surprise given the paucity of options

It is clear though that Raheem Sterling does not warrant a place in our starting line-up.

His Arsenal career to date was perfectly encapsulated when he ran a ball out of play when under no pressure whatsoever. When Arteta turned to his bench it was no surprise that the Chelsea loanee was the man to be hooked.

We looked much better without him as our attack suddenly had a focal point in Merino whilst Leandro Trossard looked much better on the left and it was his delightful cross that set up Merino to add his well taken second goal.

After a very intensive run of games, our fixtures are now a little more stretched out and we have a whole week to plan and prepare for the visit of West Ham United.

Without question we are going to need goals from all over the pitch, so it is to be hoped that experiments like the Merino one are not a one off.