Mikel Arteta labelled Eddie Nketiah a “top level” striker after his hat-trick in the 5-0 thrashing of Sheffield United.
Nketiah was handed a start following an injury to Gabriel Jesus which is set to keep him out for a number of weeks and put the Gunners three ahead before goals from Fabio Vieira and Takehiro Tomiyasu capped off a huge victory.
“For me, he is top level,” Arteta said.
“He’s started nine out of our 10 Premier League games. That shows how much we trust him and the importance he has in the team.
“I’m really happy for him, an academy player to experience that in the Premier League, a hat-trick. He needs to enjoy that moment.
“He fully deserves it and hopefully there’s many more to come.
“How good is he now?,” Arteta added when asked how good he can be in the future.
“He’s already playing for us, he’s started nine games in the Premier League. He’s already really, really good.
“He can be better. The best thing Eddie’s got, yes he’s got talent, but the mentality that he’s got is incredible.
“When he has that mentality with that talent, obviously he’s going to be much better.”
Midfielder Martin Odegaard was surprisingly named on the bench for the victory and was an unused substitute.
But Arteta says the Norway international has been carrying a small injury and wanted to rest him.
“We went through all the minutes that everyone has played in the last three weeks and some of them played an enormous amount of minutes,” he explained.
“Martin has, as well, been carrying a little thing that wasn’t very comfortable in the games.
“We have players that have enormous quality and we have to trust in them, and we believed it was the right day to do so.”
