Eddie Nketiah has shown he is a lot more than a fox in the box and he deserves a great deal of praise. As does Mikel Arteta, who was desperate to keep hold of the Arsenal youth graduate. jbsoutar
Date published: Friday 27th January 2023 7:41 -
Nketiah has always been a clinical finisher, but many thought he was just that. Despite a superb goalscoring record at youth level for both club and country, minutes were very hard to come by. Of course, he was young and Arsenal had Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. A loan made sense and joining Leeds United for the 2019/20 season to play under Marcelo Bielsa was definitely a sensible move. Or so it seemed.
An Arsenal contract extension looked unlikely. He was strongly linked with Newcastle United and Crystal Palace, but Mikel Arteta frequently voiced his admiration and how much he hoped Nketiah would commit his future to the Gunners. Fans were a tad confused to see Arteta so desperate to keep hold of the player, but this was another masterful piece of management.
But with the Gunners back in the Europa League, Nketiah also knew he would get plenty of game time, though his first Premier League start did not come until Boxing Day with Gabriel Jesus injured. He scored that day, and then in the next game, before bagging a hugely important brace against Manchester United on Sunday with a double in the FA Cup against Oxford United sandwiched between those fixtures.
Nketiah deserves this. While there has been a bit of luck involved with Aubameyang being ostracised and offloaded by Arteta, Nketiah has always trained well, convincing Arteta and former captain Lacazette that he would come good if given enough game time from his work at London Colney alone. And just like that, all it has taken for Nketiah to show he is good at football is the chance to actually play football.
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