Kevin Whitcher
“Eddie! Eddie! Eddie!” The chant rang around the Emirates after Eddie Nketiah scored a poacher’s goal with his first touch after replacing Reiss Nelson as an 85th minute substitute to take the League Cup 4th Round tie to extra time. It was a gamble that paid off (and use Sportingbet Promotional Code 2018 if you fancy yourself to be as fortunate as the Gunners were last night).
It’s moments like these that live in the memory, and in truth, we haven’t had enough of them in recent years. I recall with fondness the introduction in the 1980s of players from the youth ranks like Tony Adams, David Rocastle, Mickey Thomas, Paul Merson and Kevin Campbell.
In a sense, the amount of goodwill given to Theo Walcott in his earlier seasons at the club reflected the desire of the fans to see a young English talent become part of a fresh winning team. The likes of Campbell, Cole, Keown and Ray Parlour had left the club there was a hunger for more homegrown players, even if Walcott was not at the club until he was 16 years old. When Jack Wilshere arrived on the scene in such dramatic fashion, the intensity of the positive feeling and excitement grew even greater.
Both players have since, due to a mixture of injuries and in Walcott’s case, form, dropped out of the first choice starting eleven. Both started last night, alongside other players who have become accustomed to bench warming in the Premier League this season. However, the participation in the Europa League means there is more opportunity for them to get gametime, meaning that the starting line-up was completely changed from the 5-2 win at Everton. Norwich, who also played on Sunday in the East Anglian derby, only made four changes.
In theory, this should have meant that fatigue would have worked to Arsenal’s advantage. And yet, ironically, it was the home side that looked the more laboured. Worse still, in spite of dominating possession, the visitors, who brought a very healthy number of fans with them, opened the scoring with a goal before the interval. A throughball from midfield exposed Arsenal’s lack of pace and an absence of confidence in Matt Macey. No Manuel Neuer he.
Norwich generally camped in their own half, but the pace of their forwards did, at times, expose their hosts. Having said that, I was very impressed with the commitment of Mathieu Debuchy, even if he looks understandably rusty. There is even an argument for playing him at the right wing back position if the form of Hector Bellerin is not at the required level, although he will need more game time before he could think about lasting 90 minutes in the more physically demanding wide position.
Arsenal tried to get back in the game after the interval, but chances came and went, although the best went to the visitors on the break and Arsenal were fortunate that Elneny remained on the pitch when as the last man, he prevented a clear goalscoring opportunity by clipping Oliveira. And when Nketiah was introduced, the feeling was that Norwich could probably hold on. But the youngster had other ideas, getting to a corner flicked on my Coquelin for a tap-in – the kind of goal we don’t see often enough from Arsenal these days.
Extra time saw Nketiah score from another corner, this time with a bullet header, and the crowd, already singing the player’s name after his equaliser, went into rapture. Norwich kept going, a credit to their fitness levels and should have had a late penalty, when a tiring Debuchy bundled over James Husband.
In truth, you could not have begrudged Norwich winning this game, but they were unquestionably unfortunate with a couple of key decisions, and missed great chances to increase their lead at 1-0. But it was a case of cometh the moment, cometh a young man who I hope we will see a lot more of – he looks far more direct and aggressive in his play than Theo Walcott, who was moved to right wing back when Nketiah came on. The memory is distant, but I think Theo once excited us with this style of play.
Arsene Wenger, facing the Annual General Meeting tomorrow, will be relieved that his team were not eliminated last night. Let’s see if Arsenal are as fortunate in the quarter final draw as they were on the pitch last night.
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