Arsenal: There needs to be a plan with Danny Welbeck

Arsenal started Danny Welbeck amid the promise of youth from Unai Emery. Is there a plan for Danny Welbeck? Because it doesn’t seem like there is.

Unai Emery came out before the League Cup match against Brentford and said that he wanted to give youth a chance to express themselves for the Arsenal senior team. It was a grand gesture, and one that should be welcomed, but it involved only Emile Smith Rowe starting at the No. 10, and no one else.

I was pretty certain that Eddie Nketiah would get the starting job in the League Cup, but not only did he not get the starting job, but when Emery put another striker on, he put on Alexandre Lacazette instead.

Now, I’m not like, rip-roarin’ mad or anything. It worked out just fine. I’m just here to ask a question. I thought that the focus was going to be on youth, and that should have meant who I perceive to be either our No. 1 or No. 2 prospect, Nketiah.

Danny Welbeck got the start at striker instead. Now, again let me say that I’m not mad, I don’t think that Emery made some kind of heinous mistake. But I do hope that there is a plan with Welbeck. The Englishman is in the last year of his deal, he hasn’t had much talk of an extension, he is buried behind Lacazette and Aubameyang and he’s 27 years old, same as Lacazette and just behind Aubameyang.

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He has his uses, of course he does. But I don’t see how those uses would fall at striker. Not with the current stockpile of attacking options and not with the future of Nketiah.

Which is why I don’t see why Nketiah wasn’t given the start up front, and maybe Welbeck could have started on the wings.

Again, I hate to be the guy that’s over here griping after a win, but my gripe is long-term. Nketiah has been with the senior team twice now and not touched the pitch yet, and yet he continues to pour home goals in the youth set-up. The kid can play, he just needs to be given the chance.

Welbeck can play too. But let’s be honest with ourselves here, he probably doesn’t have a future at striker, if he has a future with the club at all, given his contract situation, so why is he taking up time at the front of the formation? Give that time to someone who can benefit from it more than it being just a sort of pat on the back.

That said, I do hope we extend Welbeck, because the man can play if you know how to use him right.