Arsenal: Eddie Nketiah needed it more than Aubameyang

Arsenal had a race for the third goal against Burnley, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang eyeing a hat trick, but Eddie Nketiah got it and he needed it more.

Arsenal suddenly found something to play for against Burnley. After Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang missed the thudding header early in the match, many might have tuned out. The hat trick wasn’t coming that would send him to the tops of the goal charts all on his own.

Of course, he wouldn’t have known that at the time, as Aguero, Mane and Salah were all playing, the latter two now splitting the Golden Boots with Aubameyang.

But with two goals to his cause, Aubameyang and the entire team seemed to turn up the jets in a unified effort to get him that third. With no knowledge of what was going on elsewhere in the league, they looked a team possessed by a unified vision. More on that later in the week.

Aubameyang missed arguably the easiest chance of the entire season, which would have given him the golden boot all on his own.

He missed another by inches, throwing everything at a well-placed cross.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

• 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
• 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
• Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
• 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
• Mikel Arteta provides Gabriel Martinelli injury update after Everton win

But then, with minutes ticking down and one last attack, Eddie Nketiah found himself in possession and rather than try to force a ball to Aubameyang, he took it himself, bouncing it through and off of Tom Heaton‘s legs for the third goal and a really big one for Nketiah, who we really need to see more out of.

I don’t think Aubameyang will be complaining. It was just last year that he willingly gave up a chance at a hat trick to let his struggling teammate Alexandre Lacazette take it and get out of his skid. It was much the same here. I bet if you’d have asked Aubameyang who needed the goal more, him or Nketiah, he’d have said the young man.

Nketiah has not materialized like we’d have wanted him to this year, but scoring this goal to put the final win away – a tough win, mind you – has to feel good. He scored Arsenal’s last goal of the Premier League season, and that can only set him up for exciting times ahead.

A sole Golden Boot winner would have been nice, but let them split it and let us have a teenager who feels good about himself. Who can hang his hat on a job well done and on a goal well scored.