On the day that one homegrown striker departed north London to leave his side in a state of flux heading into the new season, another struck first to help give his a winning start to the campaign.
An Arsenal lineup in evolution, featuring all three summer signings and a reimagined shape, looked understandably disjointed for much of the opening half-hour here, but Eddie Nketiah’s strike - the Gunners’ first on target - broke Nottingham Forest’s early resolve. Within minutes, Bukayo Saka’s stunner had doubled the lead and though Taiwo Awoniyi’s effort set up a nervy finish, last year’s Premier League runners-up held on for a 2-1 victory.
It is another Big Season for Nketiah, who had to bide his time last term until injury interrupted Gabriel Jesus’s sensational start to life in red, but is front-and-centre from the outset now, with the Brazilian again sidelined by a knee issue.
Twelve months ago, it was the summer award of a new long-term contract, as well as the No14 shirt so storied at this club, that signalled Mikel Arteta’s faith in the academy graduate. This time around, it is the fact that amid a squeeze on centre-forward positions following Folarin Balogun’s return from a prolific loan at Reims, it has been made clear that it is the American who is up for sale.
Even so, Nketiah is under a different kind of pressure to perform, the January arrival of Leandro Trossard and now that of Kai Havertz meaning that while the Englishman remains the sole specialist back-up to Jesus, he is no longer Arteta’s only option, as evidenced at Wembley last weekend, where Havertz led the line in the Community Shield shootout victory over Manchester City.
Brought back into the side in the only change here (confusingly, at the expense of centre-back Gabriel), Nketiah made use of his only real opening, latching onto Gabriel Martinelli’s sensational roulette to fire home via a deflection off Joe Worrall that wrong-footed Forest goalkeeper Matt Turner on his swift return to the Emirates.
Good fortune was the striker’s reward for his shoot-on-sight intuition, a point of difference in a side that, in keeping with the old Arsenal cliche, remains prone to one pass too many.
The challenge for Nketiah now will to be produce the first consistent campaign of a career that ought to now be moving towards its prime years, for all he has nothing like the miles on the clock one might expect of a 24-year-old.
Midway through last season, Nketiah briefly excelled in filling the Jesus void following his injury at the World Cup, with four goals in five League games off the back of the tournament. Following his last-gasp winner here against Manchester United in mid-January, though, he failed to find the net again all season.
Nketiah’s playing time did, in fairness, decline after Jesus’s return and in the League that may well be the case again this term but with Arsenal back in the Champions League and attempting to fight on four fronts, opportunity is sure to knock.
