West Ham star Michail Antonio has admitted to being left "surprised" by Eddie Nketiah's recent performances for Arsenal.
Nketiah has started six successive games for the Gunners in the place of the injured Gabriel Jesus. Despite concerns over how he would handle being Arsenal's leading man in their Premier League title push, Nketiah has excelled.
The striker has scored six goals since Jesus was hit by injury, helping Mikel Arteta's men to maintain their place at the top of the table and reach the fourth round of the FA Cup. One of those strikes came in their win over the Hammers on Boxing Day.
And his performance at the Emirates that day left West Ham striker Antonio hugely impressed with the 23-year-old. Antonio hailed the Arsenal star and tipped him to continue his successful run.
"The way he played against us – urgh. He surprised me. He surprised me! He was dropping in deep, picking it up, he rolled a couple of our defenders to score his goal. He was quality,” he told The Footballer’s Football Podcast.
“From that moment I have watched him and he’s been doing it in so many games. He’s a great striker, and I’m happy for him. A young boy coming up, he’s showing what he can do.
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"You don’t always have to go and spend money, you can see that sometimes in your academy you can bring boys up and they can do it.”
Nketiah's scoring run continued on Sunday when he scored a the winner in Arsenal's clash with Manchester United with an improvised finish. And Arteta is hopeful he can continue his good form, with the Gunners taking on Manchester City in the FA Cup on Friday.
"The next time he’s going to try again, and he’s going to miss chances and he’s going to miss more chances this season for sure. But I guarantee you that for the next one, he’s going to try to do it again. He’s not going to hide," Arteta said after the win over United.
"What Eddie is doing is incredible. We cannot say that we saw that, we were hoping that he could do that because of the way he is, because of his mentality, because of his qualities and how those qualities fit within the team.
"Losing Gabby was a big blow, it is a big blow today, but Eddie is responding and the team I think in an exceptional way. The qualities that he has, how much he wants it, how much belief he’s got in himself to become Arsenal’s number 9.
"His desire, his background, we’re with him every single day, [he’s] a special kid, he’s so loved by everybody at the football club, he’s got a real Arsenal heart and experience within him and that’s really special. You cannot put that into numbers. He’s really, really good."
