Eddie Nketiah: New Arsenal deal shows Arteta’s strength – and weakness – as manager
Robin Bairner
- Updated: 18 Jun 2022 15:02 BST
- 3 min read
Eddie Nketiah will be an Arsenal player until 2027 after the club confirmed on Saturday that he had signed a new five-year contract with the club, inheriting Thierry Henry’s iconic No.14 jersey to boot.
It marks a key turning point in what is threatening to be one of the great personal comebacks in Premier League history.
With a contract that expired at the end of June, Nketiah appeared to be hurtling towards free agency as recently as two months ago.
Until December, he had not played a minute of Premier League football in 2021/22. It was not until the start of 2022 that he became a regular on the field, picking up 10 minutes here and there in every match. His first start did not arrive until mid-April and his first goal did not come until four days later as he bagged a double against Chelsea.
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Nketiah finished the season strongly, netting five goals in the last seven games of the season. But does scoring against struggling Everton and Leeds sides really justify a change in transfer policy? Arteta will look smart if he is proven right but will be rightly be ridiculed if it doesn't.
The merits of his form remain questionable – of his 10 goals in all competitions only that derby brace came against an opponent of any genuine credibility – but what cannot be denied is that it is a strong decision by Arsenal to throw their weight behind a 23-year-old who, until the closing weeks of the season, could best be kindly described as peripheral to their plans.
Arteta to be judged on big calls
Making such strong decisions has characterised Arteta’s reign at Arsenal. Out went Mesut Ozil, Matteo Guendouzi and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang when they failed to toe the line, in has stayed Nketiah after a bright run of form. If nothing else, it gives the fringe players in the squad hope that their situation is not hopeless.
Equally, though, a finger needs pointed at a manager who stubbornly refused to give Nketiah his chance earlier when no-one else in the squad was firing in attack. Alexandre Lacazette, who did leave at the end of his contract, managed only five goals all season from far more minutes than the former Leeds loanee, who should good form in the EFL Cup yet was constantly overlooked.
And while the statistics look good for Nketiah at the end of 2022/23, can the manager really be sure whether this was genuine form or just a flash in the pan? He won’t be the Gunners frontline striker – step forward £50 million man Gabriel Jesus – but it does look probable he will be first reserve and, therefore, needed extensively.
Given the Spaniard’s previous refusal to the former England U21 striker more than a handful of minutes, it certainly looks like a move borne out of desperation.
Either way, it underlines Arteta’s willingness to make big calls, which is set to make or break him as a manager, particularly as Arsenal invest heavily in his squad once again this summer.
