Carabao Cup: Paul Merson names one Arsenal star who never disappoints

Arsenal legend, Merson has singled out Eddie Nketiah, saying that the youngster never ‘let you down’.

Merson urged the player to go ahead and sign a new deal with the club after he helped the Gunners into the semi-finals of the EFL Cup on Tuesday.

Nketiah scored a hat-trick to help Mikel Arteta’s Gunners gun down Sunderland 5-1 to book their spot in the next round of the competition.

The other scorers in the game were Nicolas Pepe and debutant Charlie Patino, with former captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang still exiled from the squad for a ‘disciplinary breach.’

It was Nketiah’s only sixth appearance of the season but he now boasts of five goals in three matches in the EFL Cup.

His current contract runs out at the end of the season but looks likely to be on the move in either January or the summer in a bid to gain more playing time.

“The lad never lets you down, he never lets you down,” Merson said on Sky Sports.

“He comes in to the team, he knows he’s not going to be playing at Norwich on Boxing Day and he’ll still turn up tonight and put in a performance and that’s what I like.

“He’s hungry. There’s talk that he doesn’t want to sign a contract which I can understand that because he wants to play but at the same time I’m looking and you’re at Arsenal, an unbelievable football club.

“You’re only a young kid, you’ve got time, be patient. I like him, he’s a good finisher, a good goalscorer, got pace.

“If I was his agent I’d be signing again. I left Arsenal, it’s different. This is an unbelievable football club and you only realise when you leave.”