Mikel Merino's limitations as a striker costing Arsenal, Cole Palmer's form and Nico Dominguez's unseen Forest work

Welcome to The Debrief, a Sky Sports column in which Adam Bate uses a blend of data and opinion to reflect on some of the key stories from the latest Premier League matches. This week:

? Merino is a not a natural striker
⬇️ How worrying is Palmer's form?
? Dominguez's key role for Forest

There was a moment midway through the first half of Arsenal's game away to Manchester United when Mikel Merino saw the space open up in the left channel and made the run. It was the right run and he received the ball inside the penalty box.

It was what happened next that was revealing. The makeshift striker had isolated his marker and had the opportunity to square up Leny Yoro. Succeed in beating him and he was in. Instead, Merino played the percentages and checked back.

It was not wrong, per se. Merino picked out Declan Rice and the shot eventually came in from Thomas Partey. Even so, it was impossible not to wonder how this simple passage of play might have gone very differently with a natural centre-forward on the pitch.

Merino had only one shot. It came from his other touch inside the penalty box that afternoon. "The efficiency in the last 20 metres was not good enough," said Mikel Arteta. In fact, Merino had more touches in his own half of the pitch than in that particular zone.

As a front three, the starting forward trio of Merino, Ethan Nwaneri and Leandro Trossard had nine touches inside the Manchester United box between them. For context, Bukayo Saka is averaging nine touches per game in the opposition box on his own this season.

Without Saka providing that thrust out wide, and with Gabriel Martinelli only introduced from the bench for this game, the absence of a true striker is only underlined. Merino's goals against Leicester were welcome but doing that consistently is another matter.

"He came on and got two goals against Leicester and they were good finishes but you are not going to win the Premier League with him up front," former Arsenal favourite Paul Merson told Sky Sports. "He looks lost up front. He does not give you a presence."

Merino does bring qualities. He is actually enough of a presence to score in the air and on the occasions that he dropped deep to link play, that aided Arsenal's dominance. But that lack of penetration in behind made this easier for United's defence than it needed to be.

That is not on Merino, perhaps not even on Arteta, who is trying to find tactical solutions to what is a personnel problem. But, as exemplified by that moment 25 minutes in at Old Trafford, it is a clue as to why Arsenal are going to come up short again this season.

How worrying is Palmer's goal drought?

Chelsea have won each of their last four Premier League home games, which should not be a surprise despite their unconvincing form - they have all been against teams in the bottom five. The surprise is that Cole Palmer has not scored in any of them.

In the 1-0 win against Leicester at Stamford Bridge, Palmer came close - seeing his penalty saved by Mads Hermansen. It was one of five shots by the England international, extending his run of attempts to 29 without scoring in the competition.

Needless to say that is more than any other player in the Premier League in this period, one that now stretches to seven games in total and 683 minutes of football. Speculation is rife as to why it is that a previously prolific player is suddenly struggling to score.

Not least because he has no assists in this time either.

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The absence of Nicolas Jackson, missing for each of Chelsea's last four Premier League games since picking up an injury against West Ham, is a popular explanation for the dip that Palmer has endured since scoring against Bournemouth in the middle of January.

"Palmer makes Jackson and Jackson makes Palmer," Paul Merson told Sky Sports. "He is a willing player who stretches the game and then Palmer comes in and gets the ball. He has got no movement if Jackson does not make those runs."

However, Jackson's replacement Pedro Neto did in fact make more runs than any other player over the Premier League weekend. The problem for Palmer would appear to be related to his finishing rather than him failing to find himself in the right positions.

His expected-goals total during this run is 3.48, ranking him among the top 10 players in the Premier League in terms of the quality of his chances. The other nine players on that list are averaging over five goals each, with every one of them netting at least twice.

The statistical evidence suggests that things will turn for Palmer soon enough and his Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca appears unconcerned about his form - pointing instead towards a health issue that was a factor in his performance against Leicester.

'Cole did not train yesterday because he did not feel well," said Maresca on Sunday. "This morning he woke up and asked if he could be on the pitch to help this club play in the Champions League." Expect Palmer to do just that if he keeps getting chances.

Dominguez's key role for Forest

Nico Dominguez made eight tackles in Nottingham Forest's 1-0 win over Manchester City - twice as many as anyone else on the pitch. A remarkable statistic given that the 26-year-old Argentine midfielder was substituted midway through the second half.

Dominguez has never made more tackles in a game in a Forest shirt. Indeed, no Forest player has made more in a game this season. When asked to praise his full-backs for dealing with City's flying wingers, Nuno Espirito Santo had Dominguez in mind with his reply.

"Credit to them but also credit to the help, especially the midfielders to double up," said Nuno in the press conference after the game. "The help, the covers, the double ups were fundamental to have this defensive display." There were so many examples of this.

The eight tackles were just part of it. There were 82 separate examples of Dominguez pressing against City, doing so more regularly than any other player over the Premier League weekend. His work ensured Ola Aina was not isolated against Jeremy Doku.

Some coaches task their winger with doing this job of supporting the full-back but that would have made it more difficult for Anthony Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi to find themselves in position to provide a threat of their own on the counter-attack for Forest.

Instead, they were tasked with shutting the space inside, forcing City wide, and Dominguez was then required to shuttle across. He covered more ground than any other midfielder while pressing, working to crowd out Doku and limit his impact.

When the winning goal came, courtesy of a raking pass by Morgan Gibbs-White and a finish from Hudson-Odoi, Dominguez had already departed. But it would be no exaggeration to say that this victory was made possible in large part due to his display.

(c) Sky Sports 2025: Mikel Merino's limitations as a striker costing Arsenal, Cole Palmer's form and Nico Dominguez's unseen Forest work