After the World Cup, Arsenal originally relied on Eddie Nketiah to start games because Gabriel Jesus was injured. Six goals across all categories were scored by the 23-year-old striker in December and January, who performed admirably. However, his performance seemed to suffer in February as news of a minor injury surfaced.
Leandro Trossard took Nketiah’s place in the starting squad for this week’s games against Leicester City and Everton.
Nevertheless, the ex-Arsenal youth striker entered both games, and even helped set up a late goal against Everton. Nketiah was observed to have a slight limp after that game, and Mikel Arteta addressed the issue in his post-match news conference.
Arteta acknowledged, “Hopefully he is fine, he finished the game well but he has been carrying a little thing. The good news is that if Nketiah is unavailable, Arsenal has backup options with Trossard doing well up front and Gabriel Jesus eventually getting close to a return.
The England u21 record scorer demonstrated on Wednesday that even if he isn’t healthy enough to start, he can still make a difference off the substitute. As we enter the season’s closing three months, that will be crucial.
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