Arsenal: Eddie Nketiah casting shadow over Alexandre Lacazette

Arsenal witnessed another match that Alexandre Lacazette would likely wish to have back. How did Eddie Nketiah overshadow him in so little time?

We say all the time that you can’t judge Alexandre Lacazette by his goal return. He contributes to much more outside of netting. And that’s well and good. Arsenal have other goal-scoring weapons. But in matches like Sheffield United, when he’s counted on to do more… he really needs to do more.

Lacazette has now gone eight matches without a goal. Again, not the end of the world. He has other useful talents that come in handy more times than not. Except that they didn’t come in handy today. And unfortunately, this isn’t the first time I’ve had to say that.

Lacazette has been plagued by lacking confidence since he moved to the Emirates. This streak he’s on is just the latest in a run of poor form and lacking confidence, and it’s troublesome. I get that he won the player of the season last year, and that’s wonderful. But matches like these expose his weaknesses.

The French striker managed 25 touches on the ball and in those 25 touches, he created one chance and took one shot. He was a complete non-factor.

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Eddie Nketiah, meanwhile, did the exact same within a few minutes of being introduced as Lacazette’s substitute.

Nketiah is fresh back from his failed loan to Leeds and Arteta wasted no time throwing him into the fray. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he didn’t have to work hard to do more than Lacazette had done with his 73 minutes. Nketiah got involved, he fluffed a shot, he played decent attacking football.

Essentially, he did what Lacazette has been trying to do all year. But it only took him five minutes to do it whereas Lacazette continues to struggle.

I’m not saying that anything drastic needs to happen, like swapping Nketiah out for Lacazette. But this match could well be a microcosm of a theme we start to see as the year unfolds, especially if Lacazette’s confidence doesn’t turn around. If these two are pitted against each other and they both do equally well, favor has to go to Nketiah. And trust me, I’ll be watching how this plays out for the rest of the year.

On the bright side, this could mean that Nketiah is more ready than we thought. It’s a small sample size, but it’s enough to get me excited.