‘Can’t have that’: Eddie Nketiah warned that his attitude could harm Arsenal in future

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Chris Sutton has now highlighted one thing that Arsenal striker Eddie Nketiah did on Saturday that he really didn’t like.

Eddie Nketiah produced a fine performance at the Emirates Stadium, netting a hat trick as Arsenal beat Sheffield United 5-0.

The 24-year-old might have had a fourth goal, too. Arsenal were awarded a penalty late on and Nketiah looked likely to take it. However, having already secured his hat trick, the once-capped England man opted to pass the opportunity on to Fabio Vieira instead, who duly found the back of the net.

If he had taken the spot kick and scored, Nketiah would have become the first Arsenal player to find the back of the net four times in one match in fourteen years. Whilst he, and perhaps even Mikel Arteta, will feel that he made the best decision for the team, it also perhaps showed a lack of ruthlessness on the striker’s part.

After the match, Nketiah revealed that Vieira wanted to take the penalty to celebrate the arrival of his new baby.

This moment may well have demonstrated the excellent level of team spirit amongst the Arsenal squad. However, Chris Sutton wasn’t impressed by what he saw.

Chris Sutton wants to see killer instinct from Eddie Nketiah

Speaking on the Monday Night Club podcast, the former Chelsea striker said, “all this stuff about Vieira’s wife having a baby…What if it’s last game of the season. Arsenal need to score a penalty to win the title and Ben White’s hamster has had a couple of pups, or whatever they are called. And he says I want the penalty to Saka because that would mean so much to me because my hamster has had babies.”

“Would you let him take it? Really? I mean, come on. It’s all well and good but you can’t have that. You get my point. It’s all sort of it’s Sheffield United, they’re hopeless, it all looks good on the face of it. But you have got to be ruthless.”

Despite Sutton’s fears for Arsenal’s future and Nketiah’s attitude, ultimately, all that matters is that the penalty was scored. Nketiah has never been a regular penalty taker for Arsenal, and the north London club have rotated their penalty takers regularly this season. Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Kai Havertz, and Vieira have now all scored from the spot.

From a tactical perspective, this makes Arsenal harder to predict and penalty scenarios harder for opposition goalkeepers to prepare for. Equally, having a large pool of players who are confident penalty takers can be a huge benefit in a shoot-out situation.