What next for Arsenal’s forgotten man Nketiah?

Robin Bairner

• 1 Oct 2021 22:32 BST
• 5 min read

Remember Eddie Nketiah? It seems that Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta doesn’t.

Regarded as a hot prospect of the Gunners’ academy, Nketiah grabbed the headlines with a five-goal loan spell at Leeds in 2019/20 that seemed to have set him up for a promising career.

By that stage, he had already featured for Arsenal in the Premier League and when he returned to the Emirates Stadium there was an expectation that he would only grow as a player.

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However, promising progress soon started to halt. He started last season regularly involved on the fringes of the squad, starting Europa League matches and getting regular minutes from the bench.

Since starting back-to-back Premier League matches just before Christmas 2020, though, he has fallen almost entirely out of the picture.

While Nketiah was linked with a summer move away from the Gunners, no deal was made.

This clearly has not been to the benefit of the 22-year-old attacker. The only game he has been stripped for this season was a 3-0 League Cup win over Wimbledon, in which he scored. With no European football to stretch Arteta’s squad, it is this type of game he will be restricted to for the foreseeable future.

Unsurprisingly, then, there are already reports that he wants a move in January.

Who wants to sign Eddie Nketiah?

Leeds are one of the clubs who are once again linked with him. This will come as no surprise given what he did for Marcelo Bielsa previously, while the Elland Road outfit are an outfit that presently looks like they could do with an injection of fresh life.

In Birmingham, meanwhile, Aston Villa are another side associated with a potential move for England Under-21’s record scorer.

More locally, Premier League new boys Brentford reportedly feel he could act as support to Ivan Toney, who is presently tearing the top flight up.

All look viable options for Nketiah, who appears to have no meaningful future at Arsenal as things stand.