Arsenal are through to the Carabao Cup semi-finals after getting past Crystal Palace on Tuesday evening.
Arsenal are out of the Carabao Cup after losing to Crystal Palace on penalties on Tuesday.
Arsenal are just one cup tie away from Wembley, but, in all honesty, there’s not much to write home about after the Palace game.
Arsenal’s cup run ends here, but, in all honesty, that may not be the worst thing in the world with a Premier League title race to focus on.
Overall, this was a really drab game of football between two clearly fatigued sides who clearly wanted to get past Christmas unscathed and fresh enough to go again in the Premier League.
Of course, when there is rotation, there are chances for some fringe players to make an impact, but, unfortunately, many of these players didn’t take their chances.
Christian Norgaard was solid, if unremarkable, on the night, while Myles Lewis-Skelly didn’t necessarily stake a claim for a starting spot either.
However, there was an even more worrying performance from a fringe player on the opposite side.
Eddie Nketiah has nightmare on Arsenal return
Arsenal sold Eddie Nketiah to Crystal Palace for £30m 18 months ago, and on Tuesday night, Mikel Arteta must have felt fairly vindicated by that decision.
Indeed, Nketiah had what would be fair to call a nightmare showing against Arsenal, as his stats show.
How good of a deal was selling Eddie Nketiah for £30m?
Nketiah was hooked by Oliver Glasner after 45 minutes, and it’s not hard to understand why.
Almost 60% of Nketiah’s passes missed the mark on the night, while the striker had just one shot – off target.
Nketiah will have wanted to impress upon his return to the Emirates here, but he was perhaps the worst player on the pitch in the first-half.
Eddie Nketiah’s stats since leaving Arsenal
Nketiah put in a poor showing for Palace on Tuesday, and, unfortunately, that isn’t the first time he’s delivered such a performance for the Eagles.
The striker really hasn’t got going in south London, as the numbers show.
| Eddie Nketiah’s stats since leaving Arsenal | |
| Games | 55 |
| Goals | 11 |
| Assists | 4 |
11 goals in 55 matches simply isn’t a good enough return for a striker, while he has just five in 40 in Premier League action.
£30m now looks like a great deal for Arsenal, and it’s hard to imagine that any side would pay such a fee for Nketiah at this point.
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Of course, selling academy products is never easy, but Arsenal can be quite pleased with the deal they struck with Palace last summer.
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