Arsenal: Eddie Nketiah a man amongst mere boys

Arsenal narrowly squeaked by against Norwich City and there was one reason why – Eddie Nketiah. The legend is born as he gave the one thing the club didn’t have.

There was one overwhelming feeling watching Arsenal against Norwich City. A feeling of lethargy. It felt like either everyone was tired, everyone was scared, everyone was shy or they just weren’t good enough.

Whichever you choose to believe is up to you. As for me, I believe they were too shy. Maybe Arsene Wenger preached caution before the match and the team took it too literally, because this club looked dead set on the singular goal of not messing up.

Fun fact: when you’re overly focused on not messing up, you’re going to mess up. Ask Mohamed Elneny or Francis Coquelin, both of whom put in arguably the two worst performances I have seen this year. The team had to work around them.

Even young guys like Ainsley Maitland-Niles seemed to be far too concerned with slowing everything down.

Sure, guys like Maitland-Niles or Alex Iwobi had the occasional burst of inspiration, but for 84 timid minutes, there was just this overwhelming sense of dread.

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And then the 85th minute came (seems to be our lucky minute) and on came the 18-year-old, free-scoring youth striker, Eddie Nketiah. The Ghanaian starlet has been firing on all cylinders no matter the chance given to him. He has three goals and two assists with the U23s this year, added to the 24 goals and five assists he had last year.

That trend continued, as his two goals saved the day against Norwich. But it wasn’t just the goals, and this is a theme I keep falling back on with Nketiah. Yes, he is a goal scorer – and a damn good one – first and foremost, but look at what else he does.

He set up a fantastic chance for Jack Wilshere. He had super presence over the ball, with deft touches and turns. And when it came to defending, he was winning the ball back and bursting forward looking for more.

The crowd was chanting “Eddie, Eddie,” and again, it was for more than the goals. He brought life to the side. From the moment he scored that goal, Arsenal looked like they realized that they didn’t have to sit back anymore. He gave them confidence and belief that they could get ahead.

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But no one would take the honor from Nketiah. They might not have been razzle-dazzle goals, but it was effort that got him to the ball first in each corner kick situation and it was effort and determination that saw the ball home. And determination seemed to be the one thing that was lacking from a should-have-been-quite-capable Arsenal side.

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