Mikel Arteta says Eddie Nketiah should be left to enjoy his football despite his good form in front of goal sparking further intrigue about his contract situation.
Frustrated by a lack of first team football – he didn’t earn a first league start of the campaign until last month – the 22-year-old parked negotiations about a new deal knowing he’ll have plenty of options as a free agent in the summer.
While Mikel Arteta hasn’t given up hope of persuading Nketiah to sign new terms, he’s not putting pressure on the striker having previously admitted he hasn’t been given the minutes he deserves.
After yesterday’s 2-1 win over Leeds, Arteta said of his matchwinner: “Eddie is doing what he’s done all season, he’s been very consistent, with his performances and how little he is giving things away!
“Let him be, let him enjoy the moment because he completely deserves it and things will happen naturally.”
Nketiah’s first half brace proved to be decisive on Sunday and must have been particularly satisfying coming against a club who took him on loan for six months but couldn’t figure out how best to use him.
More than anything, he seems very happy to be contributing at the business end of the season. Yesterday’s win sets up the mouthwatering prospect of sealing Champions League football with a win at Sp*rs on Thursday evening.
"I really feel the connection between the players and the fans." ❤️
Eddie Nketiah scored twice as Arsenal moved to within one point of third-place Chelsea in the Premier League. 💫 pic.twitter.com/KCpHAECkRE
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) May 8, 2022
“It’s always nice to score, but it’s a big three points,” he told Sky Sports.
“Like I said before the game, we’ve been working hard, we want to give it for the fans. It’s amazing to win and to get the three points because it moves us closer to our objectives.”
“We’re just taking it game by game. A win today has put us in a good position heading to Sp*rs, hopefully we can go there and get the three points.”
On his good form, he continued: “Any player wants to just be playing and to have the opportunities. I’ve worked hard throughout the season to be ready for when I get my chance and credit to my teammates for helping me when I play and to do well. I’m just happy to be in the team and to be helping the team.
“It’s a great atmosphere [in the stadium], throughout the whole season it has been excellent. I really feel the connection between the players and the fans. It’s amazing to be involved. We’re giving it our all to make them happy.”
Could we win titles with him? Perhaps not. Perhaps we can. Either way all the best Whatever he decides.
Eddie is a natural goal scorer and given trust as the main striker I am sure he gets you 20 goals in the league. His only crime? Like a Centre back it’s next to impossible for a young striker to break through at a top team and get the trust and patience of the fans and managers alike. Full backs, midfielders and wingers can be risked at a young age and they won’t cost you dearly. But like Saliba at CB the manager will always look for the safety of experience. Look at Eddie, lots of goals for the U21s… Read more »
If we get the ucl ticket, I’m sure Eddie will be more inclined to stay with us.
Surprisingly Champions league doesn’t improve on his minutes. Europa league is the holy grail for a number two striker because you get to start all group games. With Champions league you still start your number one striker. Say you had Henry with Chamakh with Porto, Chelsea, Barcelona, Everton as your fixture, when do you bench Henry for Chamakh? pretty sure Henry would want to play all the Champions league games and in the league he’d still have ambitions to top the scoring charts. As a manager you’d want your best in the league and the CL too unless you have… Read more »
Interesting analysis, thanks. What are your thoughts on Arsenal’s move for a striker this summer? Assuming that is/will be a #1 priority, do we go for experience and a larger transfer fee or perhaps take a gamble on an “up and coming” (ie not nailed on starter) that hopefully provides goals to complement Eddie’s 15-20 (again, assuming he stays)? Similarly would be interesting to know more about the potential to have a second striker / attacking player that can play alongside Eddie in the same setup.
To be honest I can only look at it from a fan’s point of view and the most exciting thing would be a world class striker like Haaland. In reality what matters is whoever comes in being able to deliver the goods. Do we have enough pull for Haaland or Mbappe? NO. Does such a transfer guarantee success? not necessarily. We’ve seen Shevchenko and the liverpool Torres move to Chelsea and feared the worst for nothing. We were excited about Chamakh (though he wasn’t world class) but nobody was excited about Adebayor and definitely nobody imagined Van Persie as a… Read more »
The obvious “inbetweener” signing for me would be Luka Jovic. I was hoping we’d get him a few seasons back, similar to Odegaard he’s gone to Madrid too early and could not compete with the established masters in their squad. We’d get him for £30m and he has the potential to be a £70m player (like Odegaard is now with some first team football), but from what I’ve read he wants to go back to Germany where he is established
I’ve posed a similar question below. My ideal solution would be a swap deal of Pepe plus cash for Osimhen, then add someone who can play wide right (Nelson has been on good form on loan so he could easily fill the Pepe void).
If we want to keep Eddie then he needs to feel like he can challenge for that no.9 spot, and Osimhen is young and has the kicker that it could be a way to offload Pepe at a reasonable value as part of the deal
Actually if Everton was the Premier League game after a CL midweek match, then you could start Eddie and rest your No 1. Probably he would be good enough to play against at least half the teams in the EPL.
His departure would be a bit easier to take if Balogun was getting more game time. Another loan that seems to have stalled a bit?
Balogun has the same hindrance as Eddie. Nobody is willing to risk everything on a rookie at number 9. Even lower league teams that take them on loan will always be torn between results and player development and factor in developing another team’s player. Picture this Auba, Laca and Eddie all have 4 league goals but if you had to risk going into a season with only one striker the reputation and the safety of experience would probably have you chose them in that order. Almost every team buys their number nine for that simple reason
Anyone who watched Balogun come in to start the season when both Aubameyang and Lacazette came down with covid could see he needed at least another season–probably more–of regular senior play.
A few weeks backs I was saying how useless he is when he comes in, as it seems he has no desire to prove hinself, or there is a lack of energy there. Now, he proved me and many wrong that the reason is few game time.
I think same thing applies to Pepe. He does not play regularly, and when he came in last night, his duty was to hold the game and waste some time in that corner. So, let not judge Pepe until he gets some chance.
Well, if there’s one man who could persuade this guy to stay, I think it’s this manager.
And with Champions League football next season (see what I did there) we’re going to need a big squad I suspect this is the ace that the manager has up his sleeve (see what I did there)
No ifs or buts anymore Ladies and Gentlemen, Just positive thinking.
We’re doing this on Thursday – no two ways about it.
COYG
If Arsenal have designs on being in the discussion when winning the league title is the topic, they must be very critical in player retention and recruitment. One thing this season has shown is that we are basically a top 6 team. With all the good work Arteta has done, we have lost 11 games so far! No title contender in all the five major leagues in Europe loses that number of games. And some of those losses are to teams true title contenders steamroll home and away. Nketiah has done well; but would he play for any of the… Read more »
Ehhm… I have a different take. This team is on track to have 24 victories this season, 2 shy of the 26 from the invincible season. The difference us and most other teams around us, are draws. I hate draws. For every 2 draws, I’d take 1W & 1L. That gives you 50% points than 2 draws. Draws are the reason why Arsenal women lost the league. This is why I’m ok we lost the 1st 3 games after the April break and won the next 4. I’ll take that 12 points over 7 draws of 7 points. Our win… Read more »
What if our win column remained 21, and our draw column is 8, that would mean 5 more points, and top 4 guaranteed.
That is my point.
11 losses is not good enough for a title challenge. No?
We had better sign him if only cos he is a destroyer to ex teams ( chelsea, leeds) and ex team mates (declan rice)
Destroyer of household appliances too, as I chucked my table lamp in joy after his brace.
Listening to the video interview, at first I was surprised at how many times Eddie mentioned “Lacazette” in his interview, I thought how nice of him to mention a bloke that he kicked out of the Arsenal’s striking department , but then realized, it were “Like I said”. Oh well….
BLOGS please send on link to new arsenal chant you posted awhile back, cant find it…
thanks in advance, top man!
Also is there a way to get it as a ringtone please??
https://arseblog.com/2022/04/north-london-forever-an-anthem-emerges/
5 starts, 4 goals & 1 assist & he’s probably been the main man responsible for salvaging our season after those 3 losses in a row. He has to stick around & I’m coming round to the idea that there’s a lot more potential there & unlike others I’m not completely adverse to the idea of him being a starter. We’d be waxing lyrical about any other striker with that kind of return in their first few starts yet with Eddie all we ever seem to say is “Yea it’s great and everything but imagine this team with a proper… Read more »
His recent stats are amazing, but we got to make sure the is not a similar situation to Willock and Newcastle near the end of last season. Players go through good and bad patches. His link up play has definitely improved and given our striker options it would be smart to give him another contract, but honestly speaking he still has a lot to prove and hopefully he will get the games to do it. Inside the box he is very good. Wish him all the best either way.
Well, do comments need to be approved?
Cant understand why some of my my comments should “await for approval”.
Cant understand it either. You have literally lit 🔥 the comments on fire with your incendiary takes on moderating the comments.
Few weeks ago I was saying Eddie is so useless when he comes in for Laca, showing no effort or desire. Now, he proved me (and probably so many) wrong by showing that the reason is lack of consistent minutes.
The same applies to Pepe. He rarely plays, and when he does, his job is to hold the game and waste the time. So, lets not judge him. He will be much better if given some game time.
Few weeks ago I was saying Eddie is playing so bad when he comes in for Laca, showing no effort or desire. Now, he proved me (and probably so many) wrong by showing that the reason is lack of consistent minutes.
The same applies to Pepe. He rarely plays, and when he does, his job is to hold the game and waste the time. So, lets not judge him. He will be much better if given some game time.
Shows what he can do when he’s given a run in the team, shame it’s come a bit late for him.
I really think we we were to sign Gabriel Jesus, Keeping Eddie would be productive for both club and player because Jesus likes to play from the wings. Let’s see how it goes. For now, I am dreaming of picking a champion’s league spot at spurs🙏
What a combo that would be: Celebrating St. Totteringham day and denying them CL football in one day!
It seems odd to say it, but I’d sign another striker as our #1. That means Eddie is gone, no way he’ll stay. He doesn’t have an edge of the box power shot. He doesn’t look like he can beat defenders on the dribble, and he’s not big enough for heading home goals.
i think you’ll find he almost scored from the edge of the area against west ham, where i think he actually also scored by dribbling past the defender, or was close to? would agree regarding heading but very few actual strikers are good at this these days, and none of those we had recently. his hold up play improved massively and is now just slightly subpar to Laca’s. for me he’s more than sufficient to be the second choice, at least for the next season when there are more pressing investments to be made.
Who? Lacazette?
We went for Vardy in the past, despite him not contributing much in the form of build up. Nketiah is showing good progress, and if he can maintain his form, I don’t see a reason why he shouldn’t keep his starting place next season. You need opportunities to show you’re good enough. And as a striker that means scoring goals. Anelka shot us into the PL title despite being a teenager. Age and experience shouldn’t matter as long as he’s putting the ball in the back of the net.
If Eddie had the same dry spell as Auba or Laca he would have been crucified. That will be the same next season, he’s our best goal scorer for minutes played, bar Patino. As long as the team create chances he will score. May even create his own chances.
Certainly an interesting situation with young Eddie now. If it were me in charge I’d like to keep him, but it will depend largely on our moves in the market. Personally I would offer Napoli £35m and Pepe for Osimhen (Napoli were our main competitors for Pepe, so I would assume they would be interested in taking Pepe.) If this deal were to go through and we kept Eddie then we’d have two young strikers who could compete with one another. On top of this I think we’d need someone who could play no.9 and wide right (Gabriel Jesus.) But… Read more »
Does Eddie have a chant/song? If not it could be to the tune of Maurice Williams and the zodiacs song ‘Stay’
Why won’t you staaayyyy
Eddie Nketiaahhh
Now your fans won’t mind.
You’re having a good time..