In defence of Eddie Nketiah as a starter for Arsenal (actual facts)

We have had a lot of opinions about Eddie Nketiah since Arsenal fans first heard about the devastating injury to Gabriel Jesus, and the consensus tells us that he is simply not good enough to start every game for the Gunners.

So I decided to do a little fact checking on his Arsenal statistics. So he started playing for the youth sides at 16 years old, and scored 24 goals in his first two seasons at the Academy.

His full record in the PL2 side (our reserves) he has started 28 times and scored 27 goals.

At 18 years old he made his seniour debut for Arsenal as a sub in the League Cup against Norwich. He scored twice to help us come back to win the game.

In that competition last season (2021/22), Eddie made 5 appearances and scored 5 goals. in fact he has scored 9 goals in 10 games in the League Cup in his career.

In the Europa League, Nketiah has also been successful when starting, in 2020/21 he scored 3 goals with 6 starts, and with no Europe last season, he was back this year and has scored 2 in his 6 starts.

In the Premier League (in which everyone thinks he is useless despite 90% of his games coming from the subs bench). In 2021/22 he only started 4 times and scored 2 goals. Last season, he made 8 starts and scored 5 goals. This season he is yet to be in a starting XI…

If that isn’t enough to persuade you that Nketiah has always been trusted to score when he has STARTED games, then maybe you should check his stats when starting for England……

And his goals scored for England U21’s is a record number that was last held by Alan Shearer with 13 in his career.

Also, it’s hardly worth adding that Eddie has started in Arsenal’s two pre-restart games so far (against Watford and Lyon) and would you  believe he scored in both of them!

Now, anyone who doesn’t trust trust Nketiah to be deadly enough to replace Jesus, you can stick those facts in your pipe and smoke them!

Darren N

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33 Comments

  1. Great article

    Now he has a chance to be a regular starter for at least two months. We could always criticize him if he fails to affect the games as Jesus did

  2. Portugal vs Morocco will be a tough match. It will not be a match of many goals but of many missed chances. Morocco should be careful of last minute goals. Qatar should also be careful due to riots Morocco fans may create from this loss. Africa will cry today. Whenever there is a superstar there can be surprises.

      1. You right Morocco won. The annoying this is that I’m drawing my own conclusion from the vision. The person mentioned everything which happened but didn’t say Morocco would lose. He doesn’t give the outcome but the happenings. I just thought he was pointing to a Portugal victory and as you can see everything happened but it was rather in favour of Morocco.

      2. You can see it was a match of only one goal and many missed chances. He said it would be a new dawn for that team and that where there is a superstar there can be surprises. I just drew my own conclusion that Ronaldo will be that one and Portugal will win. I wasnt honest
        with the outcome.

    1. “Qatar should also be careful due to riots Morocco fans may create from this loss”

      “Africa will cry today”

      Rubbish comment

      1. I drew that conclusion of Morocco losing. The person doesn’t give outcomes. He said it will be a match of few goals but many missed chances. It will be a new dawn for that team and Morocco should be careful of any last minute goals. Whenever there is a superstar there can be a winner. You read it and you still decide to spout your nonsense.

          1. Yeah yeah whatever. At least I don’t spoit as much trash as you. I support players with my common sense and not emotions so I don’t care what you think about me or him. You people get emotional over players. I pity you.

            1. Give it a rest Kev! Whatever youre trying, this isnt the right forum! Seems people have a mind of their own here and dont need some ‘vision teller’ to babywalk them through games! hahah

  3. Nketiah did very well last season and he was very direct but since he buffed up he looks different. His dribbling and overall game was totally on point but he just had to control his temperament when finishing because he can finish. He need to go back to this. https://youtu.be/49ytG5qmbxA

  4. Eddie is one of our own, I always believe in giving our youngsters a chance, if this was any other season I would entrust him with the reign.

    But the stakes are just a little too high here, hopefully not long he will get his chance.

  5. I’d liked to have seen his minutes overall and then min to goal ratio. Those minutes add up to games, and strikers, all strikers are faired/compared with those stats. Other stats are the team winning percentage compared with and then without a said player. Also, some stats regarding his assist strength, pressing strength, passing strength, and tackling strength, seeing as he’s replacing Jesus and that Arteta has a certain idea about how our starting striker should be a linchpin. Waiting and poaching will not be enough, there needs to be more. I would not put too much leeway into his academy numbers. Also, without stats, looking at him playing it can feel like he’s a lot of the time out of play, he’s not industrious enough whenever I watch his games. That’s just how I feel, I have nothing against him as I want him to succeed. I really hope he makes me eat these words, I hope he becomes a savior

  6. I hope he steps up but i think he will struggle. I think we made an error resigning him for the huge wages. He has proved nothing at this level yet.

  7. But again who made the rule that’s it’s okay not to make an impact off the bench or be judged
    In other words he could spend 10 years on the bench and never be judged

    If a manager isn’t starting him there might be a reason ?

  8. The lad has 3 games to prove his worth before the winter window opens. Wish the boy all the best, he is our player, let’s back him to the hilt. No use complaining, Mikel is not a fool to hike his, wages.

  9. For Edge Nkethia being a Arteta’s man player. And also a good striker for Arsenal scoring goals in games but mostly when he start them.
    For this reason accounted to Nkethia. I think and believe that Arteta will give him the chance to lead the line for the Gunners in their 3 consecutive Epl and FA Cup matches starting from this month of Dec the 26th. More especially if he proved he’s worthy to do so for Arsenal during their game-restart games in which Eddie has so far scored twice for Arsenal in 2 games with 2 more to be played.
    Nevertheless, the onus is still on Arsenal to sign that new 3rd striker. Who should be of top top quality grade kind with proven many goals scouring at least not less than 20 – 30 goals per season at the top level of the game.
    By Arsenal so doing, they will guaranteed themselves a another viable striker option in their team to start/ play him differently from playing Eddie and Gabby to give Arsenal what they want when the need arises for them to do so.
    The season is still long for Arsenal in the 3 competitions they are competing in them to win laurels and acolades for us all. Therefore, they shouldn’t take chances to overlook very important matter they shouldn’t have overlooked. But avoid the overlook completely to not cost us Arsenal any failures in our season. But us winning titles at season’s end.

  10. Just to check: are you only showing the goals Eddie scored *when starting* (ie it doesn’t list his total goals, including goals from the bench vs the number of games he started – that would be cheating)?
    Either way, I think he’s a good striker, but we’ll feel the difference over a run of games because Jesus is just better. GJ is a brilliant player, and there aren’t many that could replace him adequately to be fair.

  11. For Eddie Nkethia being a Arteta’s man player. And also a good striker for Arsenal scoring goals in games but mostly when he start them.
    For this reason accounted to Nkethia. I think and believe that Arteta will give him the chance to lead the line for the Gunners in their 3 consecutive Epl and FA Cup matches starting from this month of Dec the 26th. More especially if he proved he’s worthy to do so for Arsenal during their game-restart games in which Eddie has so far scored twice for Arsenal in 2 games with 2 more to be played.
    Nevertheless, the onus is still on Arsenal to sign that new 3rd striker. Who should be of top top quality grade kind with proven many goals scoring at least not less than 20 – 30 goals per season at the top level of the game.
    By Arsenal so doing, they will guaranteed themselves a another viable striker option in their team to start/ play him differently from playing Eddie and Gabby to give Arsenal what they want when the need arises for them to do so.
    The season is still long for Arsenal in the 3 competitions they are competing in them to win laurels and acolades for us all. Therefore, they shouldn’t take chances to overlook very important matter they shouldn’t have overlooked. But avoid the overlook completely to not cost us Arsenal any failures in our season. But us winning titles at season’s end.

  12. A very informative article based on the facts.The problem is that certain fans are unable or unwilling to distinguish between their perception and reality. I hope Eddie takes this opportunity to prove his numerous doubters wrong and win the complete trust of Arteta.In ESR and Vieira we have two hugely talented young players who can make a real impression in the front three during the second half of this season.Apart from their skill they have the adaptability to fill the gap created by the injury to Jesus who lets remember is not and never has been a conventional central striker or target man.Let’s hope these three alleviate the natural despondency of Arsenal fans over the temporary loss of Jesus.

    1. It’s a fact since January he’s scored in 3 Prem fixtures
      It’s a fact he’s played over 100 games for Arsenal
      This idea that coming off the bench isn’t an opportunity is nonsense ( or else why bring him on ?)
      Younger readers dont listen
      In life , you get an opportunity , take it , even if it’s 5 minuites , give that 5 mins everything to get notcied

      1. That’s because Nketiah coming off the bench doesn’t suit the author’s agenda.

        ESR came off the bench and scored goals, wasn’t a problem showing his abilities.

        Why is it different for Nketiah? Why doesn’t the author consider those opportunities, only starting counts?

        It’s fine It’s the author’s opinion I just hold a different one.

  13. Everybody in this team can score goals…We shouldn’t worry about a goal drought
    It’s Partey I worry about…We must get a very good DM

  14. Maybe he will, maybe he won’t, but still scratching my head as to what Nketien has done to justify so much faith when others haven’t been given half his chances. Nketien a good header of the ball?, Nketien a mobile elusive striker?, Nketien the unpredictable, with a wide range of shots? Haven’t seen any of this from him so far.

  15. Eddie looked very sharp at the start of the campaign but dropped off from that level as the season carried on. Hopefully he can rediscover some form and get some help from the likes of ESR and Nelson as I think Saka might need a break as well – he put it a great performance today even though he was almost kicked off the park.

  16. Thank you.
    Facts certainly help the perspective.
    This will be Nketiah’s chance to really show his worth.
    Wouldn’t it be great, if he succeeded?

  17. Well, it is up to Nketiah, to step up and show that he is capable to help the team maintain the number-one spot in the league. And make the name for himself. Arsenal fans/supporters will sing his name.

  18. If Fabio Vieira was more physical and loved a tackle then I think he could look good playing a type of Firminho role. Arteta tried that with S Rowe I believe, it didn’t pan out at the time but with the world cup ongoing I wonder if Arteta will pull a surprise in training, he has the time this time around and he can be difficult to read from time __like with the fullback areas this season how he surprised us at times. Nketiah will get his shot of course as he’s the only recognized CF, but I wonder if Arteta has a couple of cards up his sleeve…

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