Charles Watts, the Arsenal correspondent for Goal, has been reacting to the club’s victory over Fulham on the opening day of the 2020/21 Premier League season during a recent video on his YouTube channel.
One of the subjects he discussed was the pre-match clash between Dani Ceballos and Eddie Nketiah during the warm-up. Fortunately for Mikel Arteta’s side, the disagreement between two of his players didn’t have any impact on the outcome of the fixture.
Sitting up in the stands, Watts shared his account of what happened, here is how he described the incident.
[There was] a little bit of a flare-up between Dani Ceballos and Eddie Nketiah.
“It all sort of stemmed from a challenge from Ceballos on Nketiah. Nketiah clearly didn’t like it and said something and then Ceballos, really angry, shoved Nketiah.
“It sort of calmed down a little bit but it went back in, the passing drill continued between the substitutes, and straight away Ceballos went in on Nketiah again.
“It took Sead Kolasinac coming in and getting involved – and he calmed it all down a little bit.
“You can see they were really wound up by it still, even before the game as they walked out to the pitch they just didn’t look happy, they sat on either end of the bench.
“I think Mikel Arteta will have to smooth that over when they get back to London Colney either tomorrow or on Monday.”
Should Arteta be concerned by the incident which took place involving Ceballos and Nketiah?
Yes
No
TIF Thoughts…
Ceballos took to Instagram shortly after the conclusion of the game at Craven Cottage to make it clear that the pair had resolved the issue and that post was shared by the club’s official Twitter account. Whilst it could be argued that those types of exchanges can be sometimes seen on the training ground, the fact it was played out in front of the cameras and in the public eye may well have made some Arsenal fans feel uneasy.
Goals from Alexandre Lacazette, Gabriel and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang ensured the Gunners left west London with all three points (as per BBC Sport) and so in the grand scheme of things, in our view, this was a minor issue in what was overall a good day for the FA Cup holders.