Arsenal fans will love the Mikel Merino realisation Spain fans made ages ago

Almost 18 months have passed since Mikel Merino first found his ‘clutch’ streak for Arsenal, scoring twice at Leicester City in February 2025.

But he had long since embraced it on the international stage; seven months prior, Merino came off the bench to score a late extra-time winner for Spain against Germany and send La Roja through to the Euro 2024 semi-finals.

That knack for key goals makes him a cult hero among both sets of supporters and even a legend of sorts in meme culture.

His icon status in Spain was explained to celebrity Arsenal fan, Roman Kemp, by Spanish fan Alberto during a pre-match get-together for Sky Sports ahead of the World Cup final between Argentina and Spain last week.

Both Arsenal and Spain fans are now well aware that Mikel Merino is quite the clutch player

In the clip, Alberto describes Merino as “the guy who comes in the club at three in the morning and gets the girl… he only needs five minutes”. It marks a nice change from the ‘bridesmaid’ status which had plagued the Gunners prior to their title win.

Arsenal folk can certainly relate to his clutch superpowers as, in addition to the King Power strikes mentioned above, he also came on late to score a crucial equaliser versus Newcastle last year and did so again in January when the Gunners lost 3-2 against Manchester United.

He did not even need five minutes to help Spain beat Belgium in the quarter-finals this summer – just 117 seconds passed from the moment of his introduction to when he fired the ball past the bungling Senne Lammens in goal.

And it followed on from his stoppage-time winner against Portugal in the Round of 16 seven minutes after being summoned, making him the first player in World Cup history to score the winning goal in two different knockout matches as a substitute.

Spain always knew they had a clutch gem on their hands. Now, Arsenal and the rest of the footballing world know it too.

Add us as a preferred source on Google