‘Selfish’ from first Arsenal game, Nketiah like Ronaldo v Slovenia in Crystal Palace defeat

“I didn’t (like it). It’s a team sport and yes you’ve missed your chance and with these opportunities you do want to be scoring. But you’ve got to be celebrating with your team-mate in getting 1-0 up in the early parts of the game. For me it was a bit selfish. You can have that disappointment after the game.”

It was half-time in Eddie Nketiah’s senior debut, for Arsenal against FC Vorskla, and Karen Carney didn’t think much of the then teenager holding his head in his hands while his teammates celebrated having missed a chance in the build-up to the opening goal of the game.

“It’s a strange reaction, you have to say,” added fellow pundit Martin Keown. “But you know what strikers are like.”

Erling Haaland and Alan Shearer agree that “you have to be selfish” and Gary Lineker says he often took shots on with others better placed because if he passed it there were two things that could go wrong – his pass and his teammate’s shot – instead of one.

It makes sense, but they were/are world class strikers. Nketiah is not. They also wouldn’t have taken on three shots the Crystal Palace man attempted at the City Ground on Monday.

He had four in total, one of which he had every right to take on, and his all-round display was good in a game in which he could quite reasonably have been considered the brightest of all the Palace players, working hard, making runs in behind and looking a genuine threat before he was taken off just after the hour mark.

His second effort was from a “don’t shoot from there!” spot 30 yards out, but he hit the outside of the post, so fair enough. But that seemed to spur him on to break his Premier League duck for Palace, to the detriment of himself and his team.

Then came two shots in a minute, one from a very difficult angle on the left and the other from an almost impossibly tight angle on the right, with his only recourse in that case finding the gap between the legs of the goalkeeper from a distance away that would have required a big mistake from Matz Sels had he managed to thread that needle. On both occasions, if Nketiah had looked for a teammate Palace’s xG for the chance would have at least doubled, probably trebled.

That’s been a problem in general for Palace, who remain the lowest scorers in the Premier League (5) having failed to find the net for the fourth time this season. Before this game no Premier League team had a lower xG per shot than them (0.08), with Nketiah (0.06) among the worst exponents of that; that will only have dropped after this game.

Only Mateo Kovacic (13) and Dwight McNeil (15) had taken more than Nketiah’s 11 shots (now 15) and had a lower xG per shot, and they’ve both scored three goals.

There was a moment in the second half when Nketiah left Murillo sprawling on the touchline with a neat bit of skill before looking up, finding Will Hughes on the edge of the box and then flapping his arms in frustration as the midfielder’s shot was blocked. He played his role in that move perfectly, but it was the reaction, combined with his previous unlikely attempts on goal that brought to mind Cristiano Ronaldo’s performance against Slovenia.

We described that as ‘the most arrogant display in football history’ and Nketiah’s here was a long way off that, but like Ronaldo, Nketiah was searching for a first goal, like Ronaldo, Nketiah was taking on shots when he should have passed, like Ronaldo, Nketiah was showing his exasperation. Unlike Ronaldo, Nketiah isn’t Ronaldo.

Over 900 goals has earned Ronaldo the right to be selfish, but Nketiah has a way to go after 38 goals in 168 games for Arsenal and five in 19 on loan at Leeds. His attitude is of someone far more prolific.

He would be better served caring a little more about the results of the team that just spent £30m on him and a little less about his spot in the Premier League goalscoring charts.