If Eddie Nketiah is the answer, what is the question?
A look into Eddie Nketiah and Gabriel Jesus’ stats and playing style as Arsenal face a striker shortage going into the 2nd half of the season with Jesus injured.
Introduction
40 points out of a possible 45. Arsenal have had an absolute dream start to their 2022–23 Premier League Campaign. Even in the wildest of dreams, nobody could have imagined Arsenal at the top of the table with 5 points clear. This comes with displease from rival fans and pundits, who cannot believe Arsenal are a good football team. The footballing world is on its knees to see Mikel Arteta’s Tricky Reds fall apart. Multiple narratives are being run in the media, the most prominent being the one where we are supposed to fall apart after the World Cup. With Jesus injured and out for several months, this narrative might as well turn out to be true much to the horror of Arsenal fans.
Gabby J
Arsenal got their man Gabriel Jesus for £45million in this summer’s transfer window arriving from Premier League Champions Manchester City. His time at Man City might not have been glittered with individual glory despite winning multiple trophies, but there was a reason for Gooners to be excited. He has proved his worth and instilled belief in Arsenal fans, his close control and tight space dribbling have been a joy to watch. Even dropping deep at times and starting the attack, he has assumed the responsibility of being the main man upfront for Arsenal this season. Although he might be slightly disappointing in front of goal so far this season there is no denying that he has raised the level of football Arsenal have played this season. Now with him coming back early from the World Cup in Qatar due to a knee injury, his deputy Eddie Nketiah has a chance to play regular football for the next 3 months or so.
The No 14
When Arsenal gave Nketiah the revered number 14 shirt along with the new contract this summer, fans were divided over it and rightly so. Although he had some good performances at the end of last season with goals against Chelsea and Leeds, he is quite yet to convince the fans that he can contribute well enough for the club. Lack of minutes and regular gametime are important factors but many fans have made up their mind that he is not the man we need going forward as a team.
Well, for now, it seems evident that Arsenal are not gonna spend money on a centre forward this January transfer window. With names like Mudryk and Felix being linked, it seems like a winger is more likely to be brought in. And also I believe that if we were to buy a centre forward we wouldn’t just buy someone just for the sake of covering for Jesus’ injury. Arsenal’s transfer model has been updated now. So now the big question is how much are we gonna miss Gabriel Jesus? Can Nketiah step up his game and make a good impression on the fanbase? Let’s look at some stats and find out the general playing style of both players to answer these questions.
Gabriel Jesus 22/23 Stats: As we can see from this Pizza plot, he is not the most clinical of strikers in front of goal, but somewhat better than average. His main attacking contributions are his shot-creating actions i.e passes, dribbles and drawing fouls. He sees a lot of the ball and plays a huge role in Arsenal’s attack. With 10 goals and assists this season, he has performed quite well in terms of output. Still, with just 5 goals in 14 matches and goalless since the start of October( in the Premier League), he is not your deadly finisher in front of goal. There is nothing too worrying about it as he adds a lot of value to this Arsenal team in other departments. Look at the number of tackles and interceptions, his defensive game is also notable.
Eddie Nketiah 21/22 Stats: He has barely played 3 full 90s this season, so we will use his previous season stats. Mind you this guy has only started 20 games in the Premier League and has 11 goals, which is good enough, to be honest. He is a decent threat in front of goal and I was quite surprised by the level of play he showed last season. A major improvement from the previous years. He does not have a lot of the ball, low passes completed and low passes received, and thus depends on service from his teammates. So, we can easily identify that he is not much of a creator or link-up type of player as compared to Jesus.
The Phone Call
So right now Nketiah might not be at the level of Jesus where he can impact play through link-up and coming in deep etc. Under Mikel, he has massively improved over this part of play over the past year or so. In his substitute appearances and rare starts, he has shown that he is good enough to drop in, get the ball and link-up play with those around him. He is only going to get better and I believe he is more of a deadly finisher than Jesus. We saw his goal against West Ham and you can’t help but think there’s more in him. Upper body strength and good pace is what you want in your striker and he has it in him.
These coming 2–3 months might be the most important time of his career and he has to step up to call of Arsenal fans. Some might be pragmatic but a lot of us Arsenal fans think we have a say in this year’s league title. We need Eddie banging in goals to get that elusive trophy.
Can Eddie pick up this phone call?
