Arteta already knows answer to Arsenal's Nketiah contract standoff

Eddie Nketiah must love the League Cup.

It has become a competition in which the 22-year-old knows he will be given a chance to thrive, unencumbered by bigger names, greater tension and deeper consequences.

Nketiah can be himself there, just as he was in the previous two rounds against AFC Wimbledon and Leeds United, when he scored what until Tuesday night had been his only two goals of the season so far.

Now he has five.

Nketiah's clinically taken hat-trick - all arriving inside the hour - was a fine example of the art of goalscoring.

He was in the right place at the time on each occasion, but just being there isn't enough.

The stylish finishes he produced for his second and third goals were superb, and emphasised what those at Arsenal have known about for a long time.

They've got something special here.

But for how much longer?

Fed up with life on the sidelines, south-east London boy Nketiah - who Arsenal snapped up when he was released from Chelsea in 2015 - is believed to be frustrated by his lack of first-team opportunities at the Gunners, with this Sunderland clash just his sixth of the season, only three of which have come in the Premier League.

With his current deal running out at the end of the season, he rejected an offer of a new contract earlier this month with the lack of first-team chances cited as the main reason for the rejection.

As it stands, he'll be leaving Arsenal on a free transfer at the end of this season, or even sooner if they decide there is no way of keeping him and they want a fee for his services.

Nketiah's loan spell at Leeds in the first half of their 2019-20 promotion campaign showed that he was willing to go out and sample the rigours of life in the Championship, but he was probably a bit too young and slight to take it all in back then.

Marcelo Bielsa was reluctant to use him from the start, and although there were some excellent cameos from the bench he only managed three league goals.

He got three in one night here, and showed that he would be a fine option for a Premier League side in need of a goalscorer right now, and that is probably over half of a division in which just the top six have a positive goal difference.

Arsenal are one of those sides, but Mikel Arteta must surely be loathe to lose a player who is delivering for him when called upon, particularly at a time when the club captain so emphatically isn't.

Arteta has seen both Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe blossom into the fine players they are today after they were given their chances, and so why not Nketiah?

Alexandre Lacazette clearly won't be the answer to the Gunners' striker issue for much longer, and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang perhaps never will be again.

What about the kid from Lewisham then?

He's not letting his manager down, and looks to be a player that Arsenal would regret letting go.