Arsenal: Let Eddie Nketiah be what he needs to be

Arsenal head into Blackpool with a lot of options at their disposal, but it’s time to let Eddie Nketiah do his thing and try to be who he needs to be.

Arsenal are finally clear of the ridiculous December fixture list. They are nestled safely in the arms of a calm and cool January where, if they wanted, they wouldn’t have to use any of their best players until the following weekend.

Blackpool is up this weekend, a match that shouldn’t be a problem for a mixed squad to handle, but in light of the next match not being for a week, it might be that Unai Emery treats this as he would any other match, letting his regular starters loose on the pitch.

Which I am drastically against. The most recent match was earlier in the week, meaning it will still be short rest. By that standard, a lot of players will probably be given a rest, but there is one – Alexandre Lacazette – who may still swing a start, since he hasn’t been getting many lately.

Again – bad idea. Arsenal already have a lot of question marks floating about during this transfer window that will carry on into the next transfer window. When Danny Welbeck inevitably leaves, one question mark will become more apparent – what do you do about a third striker?

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Ideally, nothing will have to be done. Eddie Nketiah will be seasoned by the rest of the year and he’ll have proven capable of doing the job that Welbeck did. He’ll be trusted with being a dynamic sub and a mid-week fixture champion.

But we don’t know if he is there yet. And we don’t know because he hasn’t been given the chance to show that he can reliably be what he is meant to be.

There aren’t many more matches that can be utilized to vet Nketiah. Blackpool is one such match. The young Nigerian has shown himself a capable attacker even beyond scoring goals and it’s crucial to continue to let him develop within such matches to showcase if he is or isn’t ready to be trusted with Welbeck’s responsibilities.

I’d hate to go into the summer not knowing. With Aubameyang and Lacazette, we have two fantastic strikers, but as they need to be starting together, there has to be an option off the bench to change things up so that Lacazette doesn’t keep getting stuck with that job.

Nketiah can be that guy if we just let him be that guy.