Mikel Arteta rejects calls to play Gabriel Martinelli ahead of Eddie Nketiah as Arsenal’s leading striker

Gabriel Martinelli completed Arsenal’s 4-2 victory over Aston Villa (Shutterstock)

Mikel Arteta insists he has ‘full faith’ in Eddie Nketiah to lead Arsenal’s attack after their 4-2 victory over Aston Villa on Saturday.

The Gunners moved back to top spot in the Premier League as they sealed a last-gasp win at Villa Park.

Arsenal were behind at half time as goals from Ollie Watkins and Philippe Coutinho either side of Bukayo Saka’s equaliser put Villa in front.

However, Oleksandr Zinchenko pulled Arsenal level in the 61st minute before Jorginho’s strike rebounded off the bar and then the head of Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez to give Arteta’s side the lead in the third minute of injury time.

Martinelli then completed Arsenal’s win with a counter attack from Villa’s corner as Martinez was caught up the pitch and left the Brazilian with an easy finish into an empty net.

Nketiah, meanwhile, came close to scoring in the first half but was denied by a superb last-ditch clearance from Tyrone Mings, while the Arsenal forward then hit the bar with a header in the second half.

The 23-year-old has now failed to find the net in his last five games for Arsenal but Arteta has rejected calls to play Martinelli through the middle instead.

When asked if he would consider playing Martinelli as Arsenal’s leading striker ahead of Nketiah, Arteta told ViaSport: ‘We consider every option but I have full faith in Eddie.’

Eddie Nketiah has failed to score in his last five games for Arsenal (Shutterstock)

Arteta also urged his Arsenal players to tighten up after ‘giving away’ two goals to Villa.

‘When you put Watkins in that situation after giving the ball away in a really difficult area, it can happen, they were extremely efficient, two shots, two goals, they were waiting for that,’ Arteta said.

‘We weren’t creating and having enough consistency and quality in our play.

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‘The second half was completely different, we completely dominated the game and managed to win the game.

‘That’s going to be crucial – conceding two goals means it’s very difficult to win football matches, we’ve been really good at that, to be fair today they did not create big things but we gave the goals away again.’

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