Patrick Vieira still doesn’t seem to know exactly who his best striker is at Crystal Palace, though he might have got a reminder on Wednesday night as to who it potentially could be next season.
Arsenal forward Eddie Nketiah has had an admirer in the Eagles since long before Vieira’s appointment as manager last summer and was reportedly the subject of two bids from the club during the January transfer window. The 22-year-old’s contract is set to expire at the end of the current campaign, with German clubs Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Monchengladbach both said to have an interest in the forward as well.
Nketiah has had a run of games for the Gunners of late featuring off the bench but until Wednesday night’s 4-2 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge he had not yet scored in the Premier League. That changed emphatically in west London as he opened the scoring against his old club after latching onto a mistake by Andreas Christensen, before stabbing a second home inside the box to put Arsenal 3-2 up in the second half.
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At the same time, 280 miles northwards, Palace boss Vieira watched in frustration from the sidelines as his side failed to find the net for the second game running, suffering a disappointing 1-0 defeat against Newcastle. The Eagles dominated the second half and mustered 10 attempts on goal but never truly threatened Martin Dubravka, despite finishing the game with both Odsonne Edouard and Jean-Philippe Mateta on the pitch together.
The pair have 12 goals between them this season split evenly at six apiece, with Christian Benteke chipping in with a paltry four strikes to complete the trio of centre-forwards available to Vieira. None of them have managed to seriously convince Vieira of their worth either, with each having their time in the starting XI but rarely staying for too long.
Mateta, who was given just 60 minutes of game time in the league over the course of the first 17 fixtures, is currently Vieira’s preferred choice, but despite having the best goals-scored-per-90 rating of the three strikers (0.43 vs 0.39 for Edouard and 0.32 for Benteke) he isn’t a striker you’d build a team around.
Edouard, who started the season with two goals on his debut against Spurs, has gone through the opposite transition to Mateta; finding himself without minutes during the second half of the season after initially being Vieira’s first choice. The deadline day signing from Celtic did start for the first time in 10 games against Newcastle but failed to make much of an impact and looks set to see his first season in English football come to an uneventful close.
Benteke - Palace’s record signing back in 2016 - also hasn’t shown Vieira enough to warrant more time on the pitch, with his last 90 minutes coming back in November in the 2-1 home defeat to Aston Villa. He did make a 20-minute cameo off the bench in the 2-0 FA Cup semi-final defeat to Chelsea, failing to make any real impact at all with his side chasing the game.
With six games left of Palace’s season, it doesn’t look like any of Mateta, Edouard or Benteke could do enough with the time remaining to convince Vieira he doesn’t need to sign a new striker in the summer transfer window. Were all three to stay put at Selhurst Park over the summer and no new arrivals come through the door it would be an opportunity missed not adding a better striker to a team so full of creative talent in midfield and wide areas.
In Nketiah, Palace might have a striker that can offer something completely different and who could also be available without having to pay any transfer fee. So although his match-winning exploits against Chelsea were a handy reminder of his talents, Palace might be hoping he reins it in over the coming weeks so as not to attract too many other suitors to his doorstep.
