Patience is a virtue and that is especially apparent when it comes to Eddie Nketiah and his long-awaited rise into the Arsenal first team.
It was only last summer when there were doubts over his future at the Emirates as his contract was set to come to an end. The striker was in fine form towards the end of 2021-22 though and Mikel Arteta convinced him to stick around.
The 23-year-old penned a new deal with the Gunners in the summer and was also handed the famous number 14 shirt in the process. Arteta has had an excellent track record with Arsenal’s youngsters and Nketiah has been no different.
He has been a well-known prospect within the Arsenal fan base for quite some time. His record with Arsenal and England’s youth set-ups for example was exemplary.
Having scored 48 goals in 63 development games for Arsenal’s Under-18s and Under-21s, Nketiah was one of the most natural finishers of his age group.
The youngster had originally come through at Chelsea, but they decided to release him in 2015. Liam Brady was the head of youth development when Arsenal first took Nketiah on and he recalls being impressed straight away.
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Brady told the Guardian: “You could tell straight away he is a very clever player but physically he was behind boys of his age. But the other thing that stood out was that he nearly always scored.”
Nketiah was handed his debut by Arsene Wenger in the Europa League against BATE Borisov. His next appearance came against Norwich City in the EFL cup where he scored with his first touch of the match before then bagging a stoppage-time winner.
Wenger was left impressed claiming: “I know that he has character and is not afraid. He smells the combination movements, he can give and go and once a player has that in his game, they have always a chance.
“The guys who can understand that if they give the ball somewhere and they can get it back and know where to get it back, the quality of reception is a very important quality. I would say the quality of the reception, he has that.”
Eddie Nketiah home debut vs Norwich at the Emirates, Carabao Cup 4th Round, 2017/18.
Arsenal was 1-0 down when 18-year-old Nketiah came on in the 85th minute.
Back our boy..!pic.twitter.com/ZEw3XjdfGy
— FANALYST (@JoshuaGaillard) December 28, 2022
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