Banished By Chelsea; Hero In Arsenal. The Story Of Eddie Nketiah

Eddie Nketiah showed exactly how to bounce back from disappointment scoring a double despite coming on in the 84th minute as Arsenal came from behind to beat Norwich City 2-1 in the second round of the Carabao Cup (League Cup) on Tuesday evening. Having been rejected by Chelsea in 2015 for not possessing the physical attributes required to play football at the highest level, it took the young Lewisham born forward just a week of training to earn a scholarship from Arsenal before exploding unto the world scene in an exquisite form on Tuesday by scoring his first senior team goal on his debut with 30 seconds of coming on. 

For those who have followed the 18-year-old closely this did not come as a surprise after he scored 24 goals in his debut season with the U-18 Arsenal side. Though comparism with Thierry Henry will always come up, Nketiah shares only pace and ability to play in any forward position with the Arsenal legend considering the young Englishman is not as skillful and physically imposing as the Frenchman although he appears to have a better centre of gravity. With Arsenal on verge of defeat in the Carabao Cup, Arsene Wenger reminded everyone watching that the famed Arsenal academy can still match the heights of the old successful times when he put on the youngster who repaid the Frenchman's faith in him by latching unto a deflected corner to equalise before adding a second with his pin-point header to wrap up the game and qualify the Gunners for the quarter-final becoming the first player born after Wenger's tenure started to score for the club. 

To illustrate further how sublime the youngster has been , it is worthy of note to state his double hat-trick this year against Qatar and Poland for the Three Lions Under-19. This is not all as the South London born forward scored 15 goals in 16 games for the Arsenal U-18 as well as 12 goals in 26 games for the U-23 before signing his first professional contract last summer (also went with the senior squad for the Asian tour in the summer). 

Despite sitting fifth in the league table , nine points behind leaders Manchester City as well as the possibility of losing star players Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil in the summer, a glance at the young talents at Wenger's disposal (Alex Iwobi, Reis's Nelson, Jeff Reine-Adelaide, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and now Eddie Nketiah might

show Arsenal is on the right path).