Arsenal’s Eddie Nketiah has become the all-time top goalscorer for England’s Under-21 side this week, but how long will it be before he earns a regular role for his club?
The striker scored his 14th goal for his team in the 2-1 win over Turkey last night to secure the record, and will now have plenty of time to cement his place in the record books before he is too old to participate.
Nketiah took only 12 appearances for his international side to break the record previously held by Alan Shearer and Francis Jeffers, and will be looking at next month’s opponents Andorra and Albania as teams he could boost his tally against.
Despite his prolific record for Aidy Boothroyd’s team, he is yet to earn a regular starting role for his club, but this could well be his season to do just that.
Alexandre Lacazette has been allowed to enter into the final two years of his playing deal, and could well be moved on before next season, opening the door for Nketiah to make the role his own, but he must earn it.
Our young star has impressed when given his shot, but is yet to show that he is the man to lead the line on a regular basis, despite convincing his manager that he is worthy of a squad role.
The manager has praised Eddie’s attitude on more than one occasion, but it is his performance on the pitch under the shining lights which will be the deal-breaker, and he will not want to waste any time when you consider Gabriel Martinelli could well be looking to challenge for the same spot in the team when he returns from injury in the coming months.
Nketiah very much appears to be in Arteta’s plans this season, but he will need to take those opportunities with both hands if he is to convince the Spaniard that he should be ahead of Lacazette, and possibly be our first choice next term with the Frenchman moved on…
Can young Eddie overthrow Laca this season?
Patrick
I still think his holdup play, vision, passing, strength, decision making and composure needs some work.
We demand a lot from our CF to drop in, hold up the ball and link play whilst pressing a lot.
Maybe 2 years time or so.
Eddies eye for goal can not be doubted tho that’s for sure
Also, he needs a real playmaker behind him who can supply him with some passes because most of his goals with us are not a real chance play, but still he is trying to force himself to score!
IMO he is not far behind. Possible even on the same level as lacca. I think lacca needs to be moved on ASAP. I do t think he is a special player. He is not bad but not great either. I think auba should be playing upfront with Eddie as 2nd choice.
Come the new year o would love to see martinelle auba pepe ad the front 3 how terrifying would that be. I just dont see lacca as a long term option.
Eddie clearly can get goals and works hard lacca has been pants for us. Give Eddie a good string of 5 games
Edie Nketiah should be the 9 for Europa league permanently.
Meanwhile in the premier league he should interchange with Lacazette. Let Lacazette strengthen his 9 position in the Premier league.
Very far, not arsenal quality, we deserve better
Hahaha…well said. Right on the money Simon.
In fairness neither is good enough.
Good Simon, I agree. You know football!
It ain’t happening:
Nketiahs first touch is atrocious..
His decision making is poor
He cannot get out of a tight situation
He himself ends up in a tight situation
Marco Biesla kept him on the sub bench
Eddie is a ‘fox in the box’.
That doesn’t work in modern day’s game. Considering Eddie lacks pace, height, strength, passing, dribbling, and a good first touch – he will likely be like Jeffers – not good enough for a top 6 team…
Eddie lacks pace? He is one of the quickest players in the Arsenal team. But I agree with everything else that you mentioned. If he can work on his strength he can be a similar type of player to Harry Kane. Good positioning, great scorer and has composure in front of goal.
I believe we have some top young talents breaking through in the forward positions. Nketiah, Martinelli, Saka, Balogun and Nelson are all good prospects.
But… they are still too young to be placed under the pressure of having to produce results week in, week out in the prem. For now, we 100% need the experience of Laca, Auba, Willian and hopefully Pepe this season.
Sometimes I feel the hate on Laca is unfair. Yes he doesnt produce the numbers we might expect. But, he comes short to receive the ball which always draws a central defender with him, thereby creating the space for Auba to cut into from the left. I compare Laca to a firmino of Liverpool, they have similar roles in the side.
I don’t like reading all these they are too young to produce results bla bla how old is Mbappe 21 yrs, Kai Havertz 21 years, Jadon Sancho 20 yrs, Odoi 19 years, A. Arnold 22 years, Joao Felix 20 years, Haaland 20 years, Fati 17 years. And so on. But when it comes to Arsenal players, they are too young. Willock and Nketiah are 21, Nelson 21. They should start performing now enough of all these excuses.
Laca is still way ahead of nketiah. Better at pressing, tracking back, hold up play and aggression/grit. Their shooting is probably on par (nketiah has been better for England than arsenal in this regard). Pace is the only advantage nketiah has on laca and I haven’t seen him use it to any effect yet.
How is their shooting on par, I don’t think I have ever seen nketiah shoot from outside the box. Yes laca doesn’t score enough but still ahead of nketiah.
Oh can’t wait for martinelli to come back now that’s some proper 9
Martinelli. Unfortunately, Arteta hasn’t played him very often even when he was fit…
Nketiah shooting is not close to Laca. I don’t Laca’s problem, he is problematic for any defence when on form, but rarely consistent.
I have to agree!
Hope not with Nketiah, no offense; aside from pressing he doesn’t offer much in goal scoring.
Martinelli far surpasses Edie in this aspect, and I hope Martinelli gets the lion’s share of chances up front over Edie.
IMHO Edie needs a loan where he can a run of games, so he can show what he can do over a period of time. Unfortunately, we can’t take the risk with Him starting a string of games.
I’d much rather have Laca get those opportunities, and Martinelli as a second choice when he’s fit again.
Spot on SB.I like Nketiah but he is some way short of the finished article and needs to improve his first touch and decision making before he can become a first choice number nine.There is no doubt he is a natural goal scorer and very good in the air and under Arteta I am confident he will continue to improve .
Truth is none of the two should be a starter. The ST position will be the next void to be filled through the market.
Auba is the best option we have upfront if we are serious.
I hope Saturday won’t be a remake of the liverpool’s game…
laca’s games to goal ratio is shocking for a $50mil+ forward,
please don’t put him on a peddle stool.
Laca is way ahead. Even when Laca is not scoring goals at bare minimum he is working hard and holding up the ball and tracking back. Eddie seems to be a pure poacher and not much more. I dont think poachers are going to do too well in this system. We dont get a lot of bodies in the box, so Eddie is easy to mark, and Eddie’s linkup play is sub-par. Needs to keep improving. As it stands I see Laca holding down his position, us selling him next summer, and getting a replacement who will overtake Eddie.
RSH, unfortunately Alexander Lacazette is like Oliver Giroud, a player under valued by fans for what he contributes to the team, who will be missed if and when sold.
I think Lacazette still has some sort of experience over Nketiah, so for now Laca is still better than Nketiah.
But Nketiah with proper training and hard work can better Lacazette’s performances and stats in the near future.
All this excitement is because he broke the under-21 record.But remember whose record it was:Allan Shearer and Francis Jeffers.One lit up the premier league at Blackburn and Newcastle,the other tried at Arsenal,Everton and Blackburn with limited success.
His current form is a good start,but not something to plan around to the extent of saying we can now do without Laca
And i have seen about 3 incidences that have made me question Nketiahs temparament
Its not going to happen, either of the two are good enough. Auba will take that position. Arteta can’t ignore Saka anymore. Out best attack, as I said now for months, is Auba in the middle, Sake on the left and Pepe on the right. Its is actually very simple just play is best in they positions, but it look to my that there is only a small amount of people that can pick a best 11. The elite group is very small.
Nketiah will be moving on next season … So not an issue
I think the word takeover from Lacazette will be appropriate to use rather than to say overthrow him. But that aside.
I think Nketiah is yet to fully developed to evolve as a strong powerful senior team striker. He is reported to be 21 years old. Which means he has matured to be a full man but no longer a boy. But man matures at different rate of maturity age. Some mature fast while others are slower in their maturity rate.
I think Nketiah falls into this last category of slower in maturity to become a full blown strong man. Who as a striker leading the line for Arsenal, Mikel Arteta can trust to saddle him with the responsibility to always lead the line for the Gunners especially in the PL.
But Nketiah could sooner than latter attain this required top level if he keeps training hard to improve on all aspects of the quality of his game especially in the areas of his game where he is weak. I advice him to work hard in the gym exercising his muscles all round. And doing some weight lifting to strengthen his upper body mass. And regularly cycling to strengthen and toughen his hips and knees. Swimming and Ice skating will give him body balance and flexibility. And balance diet taking will help him too to maintain body stability. I think if he eats stake meat, he will put on a strong mass muscle in his upper body and that will make him to cope with nutmegging and thugry efficiently in games for Arsenal.
But rightnow in all aspects of the game, Lacazette is way far ahead of Nketiah who covers for him. And I expect Arteta to have Laca start in our away big game match against Man City in the PL on Saturday.
Laca is probably the better option as of now. Nketiah has to improve his game to start and that may require 1-2 years and in the meantime Laca can start EPL games because of his better hold up play, back tracking and ability to shoot from distance. Nketiah can start the Cup and EUL games and when Martinelli comes back he too must be given his chances as I believe he is a strong goal scorer.
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Arsenal are been very smart not to do a serge gnabry on Eddie Nketiah…..
We will regret the day we let Eddie Nketiah go…..
His goal ratio speaks volume….
Eddie hasn’t shown anything to justify a place in the starting 11…at this juncture he’s simply a high energy, industrious player, who’s not afraid to stick his foot in, but his poor first touch and lack of scoring prowess(in the EPL) make him little more than a bench player with potential…I would have loaned him out to a team that was looking to make him a regular starter, so we could see what he really brings to the table when he’s being relied upon to score goals…I think we should look to be a bit more aggressive with our formation by adopting a 4-1-4-1, with Partey providing cover and the necessary link-up play in front of the back 4, then have Saka, Ceballos, Willian & Pepe in the middle, thereby relying less on the backs in the final third, minus the odd overlapping runs to keep the defence honest, and have Auba playing up top on his own, with the luxury of roaming out wide on occasion…I likewise would have Saliba on the pitch getting regular playing time along side Gabriel, sooner rather than later, so they can develop a partnership as quickly as possible…this formation/lineup would allow us to press high up the pitch, while still having the necessary steel in the middle and speed on the edges to deal with the counter…it’s time for our offensive players to focus on what they do best, now that we don’t have to rely on Xhaka and Ceballos to provide defensive cover
Lol, Laca is an elite CF material that we will cry so bad when we lose. He is doing way too much work than he gets credit for. Nkeitia like willock, kola and Reis don’t have the level of talent to be at Arsenal.