Posted by Alan Shearer, a veteran for Newcastle United, doubts that Arsenal player Eddie Nketiah will ever reach the “elite” level after seeing him struggle in the Gunners’ 1-0 Premier League win against Everton on Sunday.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has stuck with Nketiah, who just earned his first call-up to the England national team, despite the striker Gabriel Jesus’s return to full fitness.
Everton’s dominant central defenders made life difficult for Nketiah. Leandro Torssard scored the game-winning goal for Arsenal in the second half.
Shearer said to Premier League Productions that Nketiah, at age 24, played slowly throughout the game.
We’ll keep debating whether or not he belongs in the elite bracket, he predicted.
Maybe Arsenal needs a top-tier striker like him to reach the next level.
We’ll keep probing because it’s crucial that he capitalize on chances like the one he was given tonight, when his manager reaffirmed his faith in him and reinserted him into the starting lineup.
“Today I just thought there were two or three occasions, one being the disallowed goal, there was a couple in that second half where I was thinking come on, get on the end of it, get in that six-yard box, and get that tap in that all great strikers do and it was just a split second where he was slow.”
No one will stop asking questions unless he maintains this behavior.