Do Arsenal fans now have faith in Eddie Nketiah until Jesus comes back?

After all, with Nketiah as our main striker, Arsenal’s attack could be in good hands. Many predicted that the Gunners’ attack would struggle following Gabriel Jesus’ injury during the World Cup.
Many hoped for a striker signing quickly in January because they didn’t want Eddie Nketiah to replace Gabriel Jesus as the centre-foeward but Mikel Arteta, in his wisdom, saw it as prudent to fill Jesus’s void with Nketiah.
Nketiah appears to have repaid Arteta’s faith, scoring twice in three league starts, with the exception of a frustrating goalless draw against Newcastle. So, can we trust Nketiah in attack, or is that a risk? Danny Murphy believes the academy graduate can be trusted, and he believes Arteta has a wealth of goals with him.
“I like him,” he said on TalkSport. “Well, Jesus, before he went away didn’t score in 11. And he’s started three and scored two.
“Now, he might not give you the other things Jesus gives you. But I think he’d score more goals in this Arsenal team because they make chances. And his link-up’s not bad.”
With Arsenal interested in signing Mykhailo Mudryk, who is not a striker, Murphy’s words may be reassuring to Arsenal fans.
Nketiah could be in charge of the attack for a while. Do Arsenal fans now have faith that Eddie can be an able replacement until Jesus returns from injury?
Sam P

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42 Comments

  1. I believe Nketiah could even force Jesus to play on the wings if he keeps scoring, but the problem would arise if he gets injured

    I think Smith-Rowe is being prepared for that possibility

    1. Eddie will do even better than jesus, I like jesus but he hasn’t been scoring and it always annoys me when he leaves his position and the front is empty. We hav forwards and midfielder that can do what he is leaving his position to do. Since he is not been around we hav played tough side like westham and Brighton and scored 7 goals. So I think Eddie will just be fine.

      1. @Savage what you just wrote about jesus ‘leaving’ his position is…. i dont wanna say it ’cause it’s your rightful opinion but clearly you have no idea how the team you support plays. GJ dropping back is part of the plan! We play a very complicated style of football it would take hours to explain to you why everyone in the team is where they are! Again it’s your opinion and I respect it.

      2. I still miss Jesus’ hold-up play and trickeries

        In my opinion, Nketiah is more of a goalscorer than a creator, whereas Jesus was one of our main architects. Jesus’ EPL assists and heat map showed his importance to the team

        Having two skilled CFs competing fiercely is very good for any team

    2. Exactly if we can get a Joao Felix or whoever that makes sense fantastic as it covers that issue without creating a problem down the line.

      The goals for January should be what they were always a winger as a priority and a central midfielder as the 2nd priority.

      Watching the nonsense narrative out the City game is mad, speaking on their depth making the difference Vs Arsenal. 1st City had a poor 1st half we didn’t and 2nd Pep replaced Cancelo/Walker early with Akanji/Rico Lewis. Arteta did Tomiyasu for White so that cover one and Tierney come on would of been the same. The sub he made just before the goal who tapped it in was Mahrez for Bernardo Silva but Arteta did have Vieira to replace Xhaka/ode/even saka. He obviously felt they were not playing badly which I think is fair enough.

      Also worth noting without injuries which City don’t have it would be Eddie or ESR or Vieira to bring on. If City had our injuries Haaland would be out and Mahrez would be out. They’d be left with Grealish, Alvarez, Foden and off the bench a central midfielder.

      1. I’d prefer Arsenal to give Nketiah and Smith-Rowe a chance in the CF position, instead of loaning a jack-of-all-trades like Felix with 20 M loan fee

        As for the LW role, I think Nelson will recover soon and we still have Flores/ Salah-Eddine/ Taylor-Hart to play second fiddle to Martinelli

  2. No.
    Jesus is more than just a striker – Eddie is not (and would not be classed as) a top striker anyway….. in my humble opinion.
    I hope he proves me wrong and I will support him 100%.

    1. Yep, exactly that – Jesus offers much more than scoring the goals and Eddie doesn’t have the base skills to do that.

      Although I also hope he proves me wrong, I don’t see how that can actually happen – you don’t suddenly develop top class close ball control skills when you’re in your twenties.

      Banging in the goals doesn’t make him No1 choice in my humble opinion – e.g. City with Haaland are not a better team for having one guy putting the finishing touches to most of their moves (again, in my humble opinion).

  3. I have always fait on Nketiah and I believe on him, he’s a nice player and can do and have been doing good on pitch since he has stater even doesn’t scoring last game, let to trust on him…

  4. Eddie is playing well ans improving. He will score goals and works hard for the team.

    He might not be in the same league as Jesus, but he is more than capable of scoring every 110 minutes, when you see his goals to minutes ratio.

    If its Darwin Nunez scoring 2 in 3 games the UK press starts overhyping and ****** off because he cost alot of money and is not English. Nketiah scores and creates yet all you see is the press clamber on how he was awarded 100k a week and he’s not worth it.

    I am happy with his effort and progress.

    We could have brought back Balogun or Pepe to fill in, but have chose not to, to aid Eddie’s development , their development with playing time they would not get in EPL, and we have ESR and GM that can play dpwn the middle for a few more weeks.

    I expect Eddie to get a few more this season.

  5. Edie is trying to produce in a system designed to operate with Jesus as striker. There have been some tweaks, but Edie is still trying to fill a role not really suited to his skill set.

    He poached a great goal against Brighton, and I would guess that is the type of goal where he will find success. As far as open play, taking on defenders and the like, he isn’t in the same strata as Jesus.

    Nketiah is what we have at the moment, he is influencing matches, so no use beating a dead horse about the matter. Saka, Odegaard, and Martinelli need to step up as well this year, so no time like the present.

    1. Duarnd.
      Saka, Odegaard, and Martinelli need to step up as well this year
      Are you sure or was that a typo
      The 3 of them have filled a void that has been missing for a very long time.
      It strange also to think that saka being so young has consistently been our best players for a few season now.
      As for EN. Do hope he proves me wrong as xhaka has this season but not a patch on GJ
      Not his scoring ability but his work rate, hold up play, defending from the front
      GJ has been a beast for us this season. He defends from the front which helps the midfield get set in the press which in turn helps our defence
      It’s been a very enjoyable season so far and may long continue
      I said I wouldn’t get to excited until end of March but would the double be out of the question
      Just putting it out there

      Onwards and upwards

      1. AlanBall08
        It was no typo, merely my opinion. I’m not saying they are playing poorly or not doing enough, but they need to take that next step in their development.

        I hope to see both Saka and Martinelli score 15+ goals this year and have around 8-10 assists in PL. Hopefully Odegaard eclipses 10/10 in PL goals and assists as he is a driver in our attack.

        Perhaps you misunderstood my comment regarding those 3.

        Newcastle double and triple teamed Saka and Martinelli and blunted their efforts, fair play to Newcastle. Unfortunately we were unable to counter that tactic, hence my comment.

        Facilitating is another way to impact a game, as we have seen with Jesus. Hopefully Odegaard, Saka, and Martinelli take another step in their development this year as their ceiling remains so high.

  6. I was impressed with Nketiah at times against Newcastle. For me you have to be able to change the way you play, if it isn’t working and we couldn’t. Playing that way against a packed defence was always going to be difficult. I dont think Jesus would or could have done much better than Nketiah, he has struggled at times against packed defences this season. We need a totally different type of striker to mix it up.

  7. I doubt a single realistic Gooner ses Nketiah as our IDEAL JESUS replacement . But realists know that KSE are not going to sanction the type of huge transfer fee it would take to land a top proven striker.

    And, to be fair, Eddie has done IMO rather well so far. I THOUGHT HE HAD A DECENT GAME, NOT ACTUALLY GOOD, BUT HARD WORKING AND HE IS AT LEAST USED TO OUR PREM AND PLAYING IN OUR TEAM .

    Would I therefore prefer Mbappe or Haaland? Of couse I would, but I am a realist and NKETIAH is all we have right now and will be allowed, at least until summer, to spend on a STRIKER(not a wide player like Mudryk, who lets be frank, seems further away from joining us now that Chelsea have shown serious interest and are prepared, it seems, to once again overspend).
    I say we stick at £60mill top whack, and if that fails, then look elsewhere.

    1. If we had Haaland we wouldn’t have Jesus that’s why he came!

      The rest of the post is on the mark. Eddie has done well probably surprised a few that were not paying close attention. We should let Chelsea have Mudryk if the sums get insane, like we did with Martinez to United who would of been a good signing.

      We absolutely do need a winger this window as the priority though. Nelson/Jesus are injured now and no guarantees on ESR coming back from injury both performance and picking up another injury due to the time out. Can try to manage it but there is always an element of luck that way and less luck if you need him to play too much too soon.

  8. Sensing if Arsenal may not sign a new top quality striker this winter window? Which from the look of things at the Arsenal’s central attacking unit in the forward department. Arsenal ought to sign one this January window to booster their centreforward attacking options and provide top cover for the attacking threats centrally.
    But if Nkethia starts every game for Arsenal in the Epl and Europa League Cup completion this season before Gabriel Jesus is back from inyry is an intriguing question. For, do us Arsenal have a choice other than to accept it, even if us don’t agree with i?
    During the time Gabriel Jesus will remain on the sidelines. Nkethia could step it up considerably to be scoring goals in their numbers for Arsenal. And scored them which could see Gabriel Jesus fight for starting rebirth in games for Arsenal when he’s back.
    So. It’s up to Nkethia to up the confidence that Arteta has in him . And perform excellently for the reams in their next two big Epl game matches away to Tottenham Hs and at home against Man Utd.

  9. He’s a completely different option to Jesus and I do rate Eddie as a good back up. The problem with Nkietah is his big weakness is against teams that sit back and are very physical aka Newcastle. Had we had Jesus on Tuesday I feel we would have had a much higher chance of winning the game. The issue isn’t with Eddie the issue is we have 4 players that are vying for 4 positions in a long physical season. We desperately need to bring a winger in this window to lessen the burden on saka and martinelli. In the summer we need a cf to challenge and play with both Nkietah and Jesus. Going into next season with Saka, Martinelli, Mudryk, Nelson,Nkietah, Jesus and Toney could potentially lead to us challenging on all fronts.

    1. Agree with the weakness although have thoroughly impressed with the fact Nketiah is clearly working on that weakness because it’s not remotely as weak as it once was.

      We wanted a winger in the summer we obviously still need a winger in January, spot on. Wouldn’t want Toney now he’s going to get a lengthy ban in all likelihood. Otherwise he’d of been very interesting. Jan next year reassess and time doesn’t stand still maybe Nketiah goes strength to strength and Balogun does as well.

  10. If haaland doesn’t score in a match he looks even worse than Aubameyang. But then he’s also scores goals at a superhuman pace. Out of this world in terms of scoring, extremely poor in terms of build up play.

  11. What has Eddie done to justify, so much faith? Jesus helped us get to the top with his twisting and darting runs which made Martinelli and Xhaaka look so much better. Eddie has the next three games to prove a point otherwise he is a dud.

    1. He’s scored 2 in 3 starts and has a better goal per minute than Jesus. He’s scored 6 in 10 prem starts since April. 10 in 11 starts at the Emirates. He also didn’t have a bad game against Newcastle, think we could used Jesus’ talents at certain points but he wasn’t bad at all.

      1. Sorry again it’s 7 in 10 for the prem. Loving the fact I keep underplaying his scoring records and they were impressive anyway.

        1. I hate being an I told you so and the next three league games will be decisive in maintaining our lead but like Xhaka, Nketien is an imminently replaceable unit as there are many players out there who can do the job better..

      2. Exactly. He wasn’t bad at all against Newcastle.
        He very nearly got us the winner, and it is not as if he was presented with loads of chances, he didn’t convert.
        Our problem against Newcastle were a combination of them being very well organized and the likes of Odegaard and Martinelli not quite producing their best.

  12. Here we go, City wins to close the gap to 5 points. Our next 2 league games are Spurs and Man U….now we’ll see if we have the mentality we’ve heard so much about!

    1. Agree those are winnable games and we will see where we are at. Hard to fault the mentality of the team either way given that even if they lose both those mentioned games they will be at worst 1 point behind City after 19 games if City win both. If I’d told you that would be the case preseason you’d of called me crazy.

  13. I was on 12-20 shifts and just started a lovely 3 days off (I’ll work 6 from 7 next week, it’s not holiday) so forgive the late time but seems everyone’s commentary is ignoring the fact we are 5 points clear at the top. We lose the next game, still top of the entire league. Perspective anyone?

  14. Why do we have Arsenal HD videos that automatically load themselves as soon as you click on this site??? How do I disable these annoying videos coz they are using up all of my very expensive data bundles!

    1. The videos even follow you around and block you when you are trying to read the comment section and they can’t even be disabled or closed! To the owners of this site, kindly fix this.

  15. Why don’t we forget about the very expensive Mudryk and go for Kolo Muani at Eintracht Frankfurt instead? Kolo is cheaper but by far better. He is one of the very few players in the top five leagues this season with combined goals+assists greater than appearances and plus he is younger than Mudryk.

  16. I will be leaving in a fools paradise if I am confident Nketiah will be our best CF to push us to a title race..What fear factor as a player does he bring to any opposition defence.I for one will not give a young CF 100k wage upgrade to come and be playing like an average player who only scores when we are winnning.Pls wakeup from dream land, I don’t dislike the guy but lets call a spade a spade, Nkieteah was never good enough and his just loved by Arteta coz his an Arteta golden yes boy..This is not the time to be saying he needs improvement.Will that give us the EPL title.Until we stop being soft on players who are just average and go for what we need then we may just kiss this EPL title good bye..Go get Felix , Zaha if mudyrik is over 60mil, then get either telemeins or a better upgrade to partey or xhaka then we will be talking of a title charge.I hope u lots have not forgotten we are in the FAcup and Europa league..Do you think this weak squad will make it that far.. Infact I see us slipping down cox we lack the squad depth.So Arteta should wakeup and push for more signings.thanks

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