Arsenal: 3 reasons why we should all believe in Eddie Nketiah

1. Mikel Arteta believes in him

I really can’t emphasize this enough. As long as Eddie Nketiah is starting, I will believe in him. Because Mikel Arteta does not idly start guys. He does not idly hand them the keys to the attack. He’s not trying to prove a point, or figure out if Nketiah is up to the task. He genuinely believes that Nketiah is the guy right now.

And he genuinely believes that he can do the job better than a struggling Alexandre Lacazette. This is a big deal. Don’t believe me? Shkodran Mustafi.

Arteta keeps sticking with Mustafi and, nowadays, we see why. He’s in the midst of a serious revival. But at the start, we questioned it. Why would he start Mustafi when Sokratis and Rob Holding were more reliable?

Because he believed in Mustafi. Now I’m pretty sure I’d take Mustafi over everyone else in this defense.

Not saying it’s always going to work that way. We still need to see more of Nketiah in that starting role, but just knowing that Arteta has faith in him makes it easy for me to have similar faith.