Eddie Nketiah has been reunited with his pal Declan Rice at the Emirates this season, and tells FFT why he surprised many by opting to stay put a year ago
Words Mark White
On the very same day in 2013, two of Arsenal’s current team were let go by the very same club. A decade ago, Declan Rice and Eddie Nketiah feared that their dreams had been shattered, told by Chelsea that they wouldn’t be retained.
Back then, both prospects were 14 years old. Rice was reportedly released due to of a lack of physicality, during a period when he was going through a growth spurt. Nketiah, four months his junior, was viewed as being simply too small.
Now, they’ve been united once more on the north side of London. “It’s brilliant to link up with him again,” Nketiah tells FFT. “Dec’s still the same person. I get on with him very well. He’s a good lad and we’ve got a good history. He’s always been a top player, but he’s taken that next step over the last few years.”
As indeed has Nketiah. It’s six seasons since the 24-year-old first made his Arsenal bow – as a late substitute in a Europa League tie at BATE Borisov – before he introduced himself to the Emirates crowd in remarkable fashion a month later. At 1-0 down against Norwich in the League Cup, with only five minutes left on the clock, he definitely could have picked a cushier home debut. But no sooner had the wiry, wide-eyed teenager sprinted on to the pitch, a corner was whipped in and Nketiah poked it into the net. He’d scored within 15 seconds. In extra time, he nodded the winner. “I’ve always felt self-assured about who I was as a player,” he tells us now. “I’m happy with how my career has progressed since then, but I have so much more to give.”
Nketiah calls himself an underdog, and it’s easy to see why. After carving out a Premier League pathway at the club he had posters of in his bedroom, he’s had to fight for his minutes alongside more experienced strikers. He’s hit more England Under-21 goals than anyone else – 16 in 17 caps, between 2018 and 2021 – but had to wait until this month for his maiden call-up to the senior squad.
For a while, he was seen as a support act to the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette, scrapping for cameos here and there. It got frustrating at times. In April 2022, weeks from the end of his contract, he lashed out about his lack of opportunities. “I see guys my age that I’ve played with, they kick on and I think, ‘What’s the difference between me and the lad I was with for
