MERINO NOT SHEEPISH AS A NO.9 WOLF

Midfielder answers Arteta's striker SOS after Sterling flops

- NEIL MOXLEY

RAHEEM STERLING has not been yet used as a last resort by Mikel Arteta.

But the time is coming when he might be.

With an injury crisis across his forward line, Arsenal's boss might well have been looking for inspiration here when he turned to Sterling to make his fourth Premier League start of the season.

After all, with all Sterling's experience and his goals record, you would expect the 30-year-old to provide that.

And he still should have some juice in those legs.

He is 30 years old, not 38 like Leicester's evergreen Jamie Vardy.

But age waits for no one in football and with talents around like Ethan Nwaneri, time isn't on Sterling's side.

The teenage academy product is today's man.

If you took Mikel Merino out of the equation, Nwaneri looked by far the most likely to find the net.

He hit the woodwork twice, and was lively all afternoon, playing with the kind of spring in his step that was once Sterling's hallmark.

But the 17-year-old can't do it all on his own.

Arsenal's damaging lack of firepower has been an issue well-documented.