A year after leaving Arsenal to seek a bigger role, Eddie Nketiah heads back to north London with Crystal Palace, bringing more questions than answers with him.
Eddie Nketiah will return to the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday night, not in red and white, but as part of a Crystal Palace side drifting quietly through the final weeks of another mid-table season.
If the setting has changed, the story remains uncannily familiar for the former Gunner.
Having left Arsenal last summer in search of consistent first-team football, Nketiah has found himself once again caught in the same frustrating cycle: in the squad, occasionally in the starting XI, mostly watching.
The numbers tell the tale with brutal symmetry.
In his final season at Arsenal, he made 37 appearances totalling 1,393 minutes. This year at Palace: 30 appearances, 1,161 minutes, with six, maybe seven games remaining. Last year: six goals, five assists. This year: five goals, two assists. Then: four yellow cards. Now: four yellow cards.
After a run in Palace’s Premier League starting XI when he first joined, he has started just one of Palace’s last 19 matches.
Palace, currently 12th in the Premier League and 22 points behind second-place Arsenal, come into the fixture with only one win in their last five league matches. Their visit to north London has been moved forward from the weekend due to their FA Cup semi-final commitments.
For Arsenal, the rescheduling is welcome, affording them extra preparation time ahead of their Champions League semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain.
Arsenal’s record against Palace in recent years is strong. They have won their last five Premier League meetings, scoring five goals in each of the last two.
Palace had gone unbeaten in four away league games at the Emirates between 2019 and 2021, but their last two visits have ended in a 9-1 aggregate defeat.
Arsenal, meanwhile, have lost just three of their last 36 home league games, although two of those defeats came in London derbies, both to West Ham.
Palace arrive with a short injury list. Chadi Riad Dnanou and Cheick Doucouré are both out for the season with knee injuries, while Christopher Richards is suspended following a red card.