‘Held him back’: Pundit says Arsenal’s new signings are stopping 24-year-old from improving now

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Arsenal’s start to the season has been somewhat baffling.

The Gunners have picked up seven points from a possible nine – pretty good right? But at the same time, they’ve been wholly unconvincing in each of their first three games.

They almost threw away a two-goal lead against Nottingham Forest, they beat Crystal Palace 1-0 via a penalty, and they dropped points against Fulham.

Mikel Arteta has tinkered with his squad and has experimented in order to try and get his new signings involved, but, as of yet it isn’t clicking.

The whole team has suffered to be quite frank, and according to Leroy Rosenior, speaking on Premier League Productions, one player who is being held back by Arsenal’s new signings is Eddie Nketiah.

Nketiah being held back

Rosenior gave his verdict on the striker’s situation.

“There’s an element of experimentation at Arsenal at the moment that I don’t get. Someone just mentioned Eddie Nketiah I thought this year, after the season he had last year, he’d push forward, but I think the signings have held him back, Havertz has gone in, Rice has gone into midfield and Partey is playing in this hybrid role, and Havertz is playing behind Trossard. They’re great signings, good players, but it’s caused Arteta more problems that he hasn’t solved yet,” Rosenior said.

Really?

We can appreciate that Arsenal aren’t quite playing to their full potential as of yet this season, but we find it hard to buy into the idea that Nketiah is being held back at the moment.

The striker is arguably having the best spell of his career at the moment. He has two goals in three games to start this season, and he also won the penalty to win Arsenal the game against Crystal Palace.

More than ever, Nketiah is making a name for himself as an important player at Arsenal, even if he did start on the bench on Saturday, so sadly, we have to disagree with Rosenior’s point of view here.