Arsenal’s young centre-forward Eddie Nketiah is certainly not looking to replace Aubameyang as our top scorer just yet, but when given the chance he has showed that he can bang in a few. In fact he seemed to have displaced Alexandre Lacazette in the starting line-up after the lockdown until he was crazily sent off and missed the last games of the season.
Nketiah has always been part of the England set-up as well, scoring goals at every level, and is expected to captain the U21s in this Friday’s game against Kosovo. Speaking to Goal ahead of the game, Nketiah has been very positive about Arteta’s influence on him and the other young Arsenal starlets. He said: “Mikel has taught me a lot,”
“He is definitely very personable. He does a lot of tactical work about understanding your role.
“As a player, it’s great to see the manager going into such detail — it shows how much he cares.
“As a young player, if you have the right mentality, you can definitely improve under him and that’s something I’m trying to do.
“He’s helped my all-round game, given me chances to express myself, make mistakes and try to correct them. I’m learning on the job.”
Of course all Arsenal fans are expecting to see further improvement from Nketiah this season and even more goals. I can see him, Saka, Willock and Nelson, dominating our Europa League line-ups in the early stages of the competition, and becoming more integrated into our senior side this year..