Arsenal and Alexandre Lacazette: Second thoughts on Eddie Nketiah loan?

Alexandre Lacazette is set to miss a month of action with an ankle injury. Should Arsenal now be having second thoughts regarding their decision to loan out Eddie Nketiah?

Just as Arsenal return to Premier League action with three players returning to first-team training, they get hit with some rather worrying injury news: Alexandre Lacazette will miss around a month with a left ankle problem that he has been dealing with for several weeks.

Find the latest episode of the Pain in the Arsenal Podcast here — The summer transfer window review

On Friday, prior to Sunday’s trip to Watford, the club announced:

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

"“Left ankle. After assessments to an ongoing ankle issue, we have advised that Alex will need to rest and strengthen his ankle to regain full fitness. Alex has been playing through this injury for several weeks. He is likely to be back in action in October.”"

What this means for Lacazette and his match sharpness throughout the season remains to be seen. Hopefully, he can benefit greatly from a month on the sidelines and return fit and firing. But for Arsenal, the absence unquestionably leaves them a little light in attacking positions. At present, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is their only fit senior centre-forward, while the departures of Alex Iwobi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan mean leaning on the wide players to fill gaps is a little treacherous too.

In the summer, Arsenal allowed Eddie Nketiah to join Leeds United on a season-long loan. They did this as they were concerned about the number of minutes they could provide the 20-year-old, who needs to be starting regularly to progress. This was always the risk they were taking with that decision, and now they might be paying the price.

Lacazette’s injury does not necessarily mean it was the wrong decision to loan out Nketiah. As always, hindsight is like having 20-20 vision. It is impossible to foresee this type of situation unfolding. And if Nketiah was starting every match for Leeds, I would not be having doubts about the wisdom of the loan. But at present, he isn’t.

So far this season, Nketiah has made five appearances for Leeds. Three of those are in the Championship. None of those are starts. In fact, Nketiah has featured in 226 minutes of action in all competitions this season. 168 of them have come in the EFL Cup, a competition he would be playing in if he had stayed at Arsenal. He did not go on loan to Leeds to play in the league cup and as a late-game substitute in the Championship.

The most minutes he has featured in a league match this season is against Swansea City, just before the international break. He played the final 29 minutes in a 1-0 defeat. So while sending Nketiah out on loan to provide him with some starting minutes is a sensible decision, that is not what Arsenal have done.

Admittedly, it is very early in the season, and Nketiah was never going to merely waltz into the Leeds starting line-up. Marco Bielsa is trying to gain promotion, after all. But his lack of Championship action does paint a sour picture on the decision to loan him out, and that is only worsened by the Lacazette injury. It is too early for second thoughts, but the initial signs are not exactly positive.