Eddie Nketiah provided an honest assessment of Saturday’s 2-2 draw at home to Fulham, explaining that the team were disappointed not to hold on to all three points at Emirates Stadium.
Andreas Pereira opened the scoring for the away side in the first minute of the game, but we equalised in the 70th courtesy of a Bukayo Saka penalty before Eddie gave us the lead.
Calvin Bassey received his marching orders with a second yellow card in the 83rd minute, but Fulham pulled one back moments later through Joao Palhinha.
“We had good parts and parts we could’ve done better,” Eddie said post-match. “I think we gave away two sloppy goals, which you can’t do at this level.
“We’re disappointed with the result, we wanted to win, we had the fans’ support and we pushed. We got the lead, so we’ve just got to learn that these things happen in football and I’m sure we’ll be back stronger next week and hopefully get the three points.”
Eddie began the game on the bench as Mikel Arteta named Leandro Trossard in the starting lineup for the first time this season, but our number 14 came on at half-time to make a positive impact.
“Every player is disappointed not to play and I think I’m in good form, helping the team,” he said. “These things happen but you’ve got to respect the manager’s decision and be ready in case the team needs you.
“I was needed at half-time today and I was able to help the team, but obviously we didn’t get the three points, which is disappointing.”
Just two minutes after Bukayo converted the penalty to get us back on level terms with Fulham, Eddie was in the right place at the right time to give us the lead when he got on the end of a fabulous Fabio Vieira delivery.
“I was just making sure I position myself in between the defenders and have a bit of space and be ready,” he explained. “Fabio’s got the quality to pick out those kind of balls so it was a great cross from him and a good finish from myself.”
Having scored in both of our games at Emirates Stadium this season and won the penalty that Martin Odegaard scored in Monday night’s 1-0 win at Crystal Palace, Eddie is pleased with the contribution he’s making to the team so far this term.
“Individually I’m contributing a lot to the team, towards the goals in each of the games,” he said. “I’m just trying to do more and improve. I just want to win more games with the team and help the team as much as possible. I’m just going to keep improving, learn from the mistakes today and come back stronger next week.”
Speaking of next week, Manchester United are the visitors as we’re back at Emirates Stadium looking to respond with another win at home.
“We’re determined to work hard throughout the week and we know our fans will be behind us coming back to Emirates Stadium so we want to put things right and get three points next week,” Eddie added.
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
