Nketiah’s maturity and personality thrills Arsenal boss Arteta

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has described the personality with which Eddie Nketiah plays as "incredible".

The forward, of Ghanaian descent, found the net as the Gunners ended their two-game losing streak in their 2-0 triumph over Southampton on Thursday.

Twenty minutes into the encounter, Alex McCarthy received a back pass which he gifted to Nketiah under pressure – with the 21-year-old tapping into an empty net.

In the process, he extended his fine goalscoring run this term, netting six goals in his 11th start of the season – with four of them coming for the Emirates Stadium giants, and two coming for Leeds United.

Substitute Joe Willock put the result beyond doubt with four minutes left to play after pouncing on another McCarthy blunder.

Speaking after the game, the Gunners boss expressed his delight with Nketiah who he feels made the biggest impression.

“Eddie, since I joined, the maturity and the personality that he plays every game with is incredible,” Arteta said during the post-match as reported by the Arsenal website.

“I demand a lot of our forward players to put the opponent under pressure and they've done it. A lot of the goals we score are because of the errors that we force on the opponent.

“In that heat, to keep chasing players and putting them under pressure, sometimes it's not a really nice thing to do.

“But obviously when you get a goal from the mistakes they've made - which could have caused a few more goals - it's really important. It generates belief in what they do and it pays the price for the effort.


“I am happy with Eddie, the way he's played again today, but I'm happy in general with the team. I'm really happy with the subs, the way they came in and helped the team together with the result and the attitude that they showed.”

Thanks to this result, Arsenal climbed to ninth on the English elite division log with 43 points from 31 games. They travel to Sheffield United for Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final on Sunday.

After that, they host relegation-threatened Norwich City on Wednesday.