Journalist Charles Watts has lamented Eddie Nketiah’s performance against Brentford in Arsenal’s tough draw at the Emirates.
How did Nketiah play against Brentford?
Arsenal laboured to a draw in a difficult game, and the league leaders will be frustrated at yet more dropped points after losing to Everton last week.
With Gabriel Jesus still absent with a long-term injury, Nketiah is now the player to lead the line, and whilst he has done well to cover for the Brazilian, he had a hard afternoon against a resilient Brentford side.
Who would you prefer as Jesus backup?
Eddie Nketiah
Folarin Balogun
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Watts gave Nketiah a 5/10 rating for the match, and admitted it was a poor day for the Englishman.
“Eddie Nketiah struggled again against three massive centre-backs,” he stated.
“It was just not the sort of afternoon for Eddie, he really did put a shift in but it’s just been not happening for him the last couple of weeks. I think there’s going to be a lot of people pointing their fingers towards him.
“There’s no doubt that Arsenal have missed Gabriel Jesus in these last few games. Against Everton, the way that the both Everton and Brentford have set that up, Jesus would’ve caused them an awful lot of problems, a lot more problems than Nketiah, and that’s not criticism of Nketiah, that’s just the type of player Jesus is.
“I remember the problems Jesus caused Brentford in the game earlier in the season, and there’s no doubt that in the last couple of games, he’d use his movement to pull defenders out of position.
“Arsenal could have absolutely done with him. But again, that’s not criticism of Nketiah. You can’t really compare the two very different strikers, but it was just a difficult afternoon from Nketiah today, so I gave him a five.”
Arsenal miss Jesus
The striker struggled to make an impact in what was a tough physical battle, and won just two of his eight duels as per SofaScore.
Arsenal have now dropped points to Newcastle, Everton and Brentford without Jesus, and all three games proved to be difficult in attack, with just one goal in those fixtures.
Although Nketiah has actually outscored Jesus this season, the Brazilian’s trickery and physicality upfront could have proven useful, and other players are now producing less output without him.
Granit Xhaka scored three times with Jesus in the team, but is yet to with Nketiah upfront, and the team’s overall attack is less potent without the former Man City star.
