Arsenal midfielder Mikel Merino has again been trusted to lead the line for Mikel Arteta despite the experiment failing miserably against West Ham last weekend.

Merino, who is a central midfielder by trade, started at No 9 for Arsenal against the Hammers after scoring twice off the bench during his side’s 2-0 win over Leicester City at the King Power Stadium earlier this month.

Arteta has been forced to improvise in attack of late with Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Martinelli all injured during this decisive stage of the Premier League campaign.

However, despite their attack proving toothless against the Hammers, Arteta has doubled down on the strategy against high-flying Nottingham Forest, who sit six points behind in third place. 

His decision means former England forward Raheem Sterling starts on the bench again at the City Ground, with Leandro Trossard and Ethan Nwaneri partnering Merino in attack.

Arsenal midfielder Mikel Merino (above) has again been trusted to lead the line for Mikel Arteta

The experiment of playing Merino at No 9 ultimately failed in Arsenal’s defeat by West Ham

The decision means ex-England forward Raheem Sterling starts on the bench again at Forest

Arteta insisted ahead of Wednesday’s match that he will give up chasing the Premier League title ‘over my dead body’ after slipping 11 points behind Liverpool — but believes Arsenal have done well to be above midtable because of injuries and red cards. 

He said: ‘If somebody tells you at the start of the season, by this time, you have played five times with a red card over half an hour in each of those games, and you have lost this amount of players, what’s the bet?

‘You are in the middle of the table, at least, and you are out of the Champions League. That’s not the situation. 

‘So that tells you the resilience, the resources, the ambition that the team has, every individual has and that has been, probably in my time, one of the proudest moments to work in that sense.

‘The thing is that when you are there, you want more and you want more and you want more. And I’m not going to stop over my dead body.

‘We’ll stop thinking that way and putting everything in that we possibly can to increase the probability of us winning and being better than the opponent and hitting that performance and those standards constantly, regardless of what happens.’

Just five days ago, Arteta urged Sterling to step up, insisting ‘we really need him’ to help bolster Arsenal’s injury-depleted frontline.

But successive starts on the bench means Sterling has still only started four Premier League games to date this season, having underwhelmed since signing on loan from Chelsea on summer transfer deadline day.

Arteta insisted ahead of Wednesday’s match at the City Ground that he will give up chasing the Premier League title ‘over my dead body’, after Liverpool went 11 points clear at the summit

Kai Havertz’s injury on training camp in Dubai has forced Arteta to improvise in attack of late 

Ahead of Saturday’s defeat by West Ham, Arteta said: ‘Yeah (Sterling can have a big impact), and he has to have it because we really need him. 

‘Hopefully he’s not (low on confidence) because we try to give him as much as possible, but that’s a question for him.

‘But we are all behind him, we want the best for him. It’s going to be really important and we need his best. We need the players only with that mindset, to be here to impact the team.’

Arsenal XI vs Nottingham Forest: David Raya, Jurrien Timber, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes, Riccardo Calafiori, Jorginho, Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard, Ethan Nwaneri, Leandro Trossard, Mikel Merino.