admits he sympathises with struggling star who he believes is being played in the wrong position by his manager .
The former Chelsea star spent the majority of his career at Stamford Bridge in a central striking role, but Arteta has attempted to turn the Germany international into a midfielder.
Arteta issued his latest staunch defence of Havertz ahead of Saturday’s game against Burnley, but the 24-year-old again struggled to make a telling impact and was taken off on the hour mark.
‘He’s struggling a bit,’ Merson told Sky Sports. ‘He had a shot that got blocked, if you’ve got four in four you hit that and it gets deflected or you hit it sweetly and it goes in.
‘I feel sorry for him, I don’t think he’s a midfield player I think he’s a centre forward. He’s 6ft 4in, maybe he’s a No.10.
‘What he did do and they did well Arsenal they got the ball in the box and he got in the box.
‘He’s a big lad I hope he does well I think he’s a special player and he’s struggling. Everyone struggles in their career and he’s having that moment and the moment and hopefully he gets through it.’
Despite another indifferent display from Havertz, Arsenal did enough to record a 3-1 win which moved them joint top of the Premier League, albeit having played a game more than Manchester City.
‘This is what this team does, we play in the best possible way, we give absolutely everything to win games, to earn it, when the opponent is better we just congratulate them.
‘I think we’ve been better in the last three games than the opponent and we deserve to be in the position where we are, in a really strong position going into the international break, it gives us some momentum.
‘We need to get players back because at the momentum we have eight players not available and that’s a lot, and in December we have 11 games coming up, so we better get everybody back quickly.’
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