Danny Mills believes Eddie Nketiah has an opportunity to become the top striker Arsenal have been missing and has encouraged him to ‘knuckle down’ and make the shirt his own.
Nketiah, 22, has started ahead of in the Gunners’ back-to-back victories over and Manchester United, netting twice at last Wednesday.
Ever since left in January to join Barcelona, the north Londoners have been short on firepower and are believed to have made a new centre-forward their top transfer priority.
However, Mills, the former Leeds United defender, believes Nketiah is good enough to be Arsenal’s permanent starting striker and has told the Englishman to continue impressing manager Mikel Arteta with his recent form.
Speaking to , he said: ‘We’ve seen that he can score goals. But there’s obviously a reason why he doesn’t get a lot of game time. He came to Leeds and didn’t get much, and he’s had a couple of managers at Arsenal too.
‘You have to ask the question of his performances in training – is he really doing all that he can?
‘If you give him the opportunity, he can be brilliant in front of goal. That’s not hard to see. I think he just needs to knuckle down in training now, work a little bit harder – and look at his weaknesses.
‘He can make the shirt his own if he can do exactly what the manager wants of him.’
Despite seeing more game time lately, Nketiah’s contract runs out at the end of the season and he could leave the Emirates after being on the periphery for much of his time at the club.
Having joined from Chelsea’s youth system in 2015, Nketiah has featured primarily in the cups for the Gunners and impressed this season scoring five goals in five matches in the Carabao Cup.
He was believed to be the subject of interest from Crystal Palace in January, however Arsenal were reluctant to let him leave following Aubameyang’s departure.
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