Arsenal: 4 glaring mistakes Mikel Arteta made vs Everton

4. What Has Eddie Nketiah Done to Deserve Minutes?

Are there certain triggers that prompt usage in this team? Does Arteta like it when his players play hard to get?

Nketiah rejected a new deal 24 hours before earning his first Premier League minutes of the season against Manchester United. Now, that contract was offered to him purely to try and squeeze more money out of the tribunal when he inevitably leaves for free in the summer, but it still doesn’t explain this sudden marketing scheme with Nketiah.

Why is he getting minutes now? And why is he getting minutes out on the left wing? Nobody is denying that the academy man isn’t talented, it’s just impossible to justify fielding someone who is actively seeking to leave the club over, for example, a 20-year-old academy star who shunned the advances of clubs across Europe to sign a long-term contract back in April.

And while the faith in Nicolas Pepe to ever live up to his potential in north London has well and truly ended, at least he’s actually a wide player. That’s now five minutes of football in six of the last seven league matches. When he does eventually see some action there is no chance of him being even remotely serviceable. Aubameyang would eventually come on with five minutes to go, so why not sooner?

"Quizzed after the game, Arteta said: “He [Nketiah] does every day in training what you see him do in 25 minutes here. “Every single day. That’s why I picked him.”"

What, miss from two yards? He may have looked fairly sharp aside from that, but the timing of it all is so off.

Apologies to Arteta, and this may come across as harsh, but nobody cares what Nketiah did or didn’t do in training. He is actively trying to leave. When he scored goals against AFC Wimbledon and Leeds, where was his place in the Premier League squad then?

Spoiler: he didn’t make the bench in either game that followed.