Arsenal: Time to make Eddie Nketiah the lucky third in a row

Arsenal have found a wealth of productivity in their youth products, but in terms of proven-beyond-a-doubt talent, we need a third—Eddie Nketiah?

Some of Arsenal‘s most exciting players this year have been their youngsters. It’s always a good place to be, but there is a distinct difference between youngsters who are ready here and now and youngsters who are exciting because they look talented, but still need to figure some stuff out.

It’s been awhile since we had two of the former pop up in the same season, but that is currently the case with Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka. I would put them in the starting XI every single day if it were in any way possible to do so.

Together, they are behind just Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Nicolas Pepe in goal contributions, and they’re both just 18-years-old.

Now, though, Mikel Arteta has been introducing another youngster into the fold—Eddie Nketiah. The young Englishman has been starting over Alexandre Lacazette and against Everton, we saw why. His finish was tremendous, he nearly got another that thunked the crossbar and his involvement was there even when the goals weren’t.

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Nketiah has said that his loan at Leeds prepared him for then fight ahead at Arsenal and, frankly, I’m not one to doubt after what we’ve seen.

That said, Nketiah still isn’t in the same tier as Saka and Martinelli. But Arteta looks determined to get him in there with continued exposure to the Premier League amongst players who can make him categorically better.

Not to mention just more confident. He is, after all, a proven goal scorer, we just need to see more of that develop at the top tier.

It’s going to be more difficult for Nketiah to replicate what Martinelli and Saka have done, but there again we have the good news that Arteta is clearly quite keen on him, and as long as he doesn’t dramatically blow his lines, there’s no reason to think that he can’t become our third bonafide youngster to solidify himself as a first teamer this year. Honestly, it would make things easier this summer if we knew he could be counted on to do a job up top.

Arteta’s focus on youth has been sporadic at times, but when he finds a player he believes in, there’s usually good cause for it, and that good cause has translated perfectly through two guys, so why not three?