Eddie Nketiah came on and looked lively against Brighton at the weekend, but he still has to settle for a few minutes here and there with the first team.

Here’s a statistic for you: Since 10 September 2017, Danny Welbeck and Eddie Nketiah have scored the same number of goals for the Arsenal first team. Nketiah has 117 minutes of senior football in that time, Welbeck has 1,073 minutes.

Yet when Welbeck was the only up-front alternative against Östersunds FK, Arsene Wenger still only gave Nketiah eight minutes over the two legs.

Then when Arsenal needed a goal against Brighton at the weekend, the former Manchester United man came on first. Nketiah came on 10 minutes later for the final moments and still managed more shots on target.

The 18-year-old has had to settle for academy opportunities recently, and he’s certainly  making the most of them. He has six goals in his last four starts with the u23s.

If you ignore age and seniority, I can’t see what Welbeck has done to earn chances up front ahead of Nketiah in recent months. The youngster shows time and again he isn’t phased by pressure, and displays an enthusiasm the first-team is severely lacking right now.

Perhaps it’s a bit much to throw him in from the start at the San Siro. Still, I’d definitely take him along and bring him off the bench.

After that, I don’t see why he shouldn’t get starts in the Premier League. Arsenal have nothing to lose right now, they may as well start taking some risks.