Eddie Nketiah is convinced he has taken the right step in leaving Arsenal on loan to join Leeds United even though that meant going against Unai Emery's wishes for him.
The 20-year-old, who last night scored in England Under-21s 3-2 win over Turkey in a European Championship qualifier, joined the Championship side last month and has already featured on five occasions, scoring three goals.
Emery had confirmed during Arsenal's pre-season tour of the USA - in which Nketiah hit a similarly rich vein of form - that he planned to utilise the youngster in his first-team squad. However even at that stage the striker was mulling his options, acutely aware that he would be vying for minutes behind Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette.
A similar situation had transpired in the second half of last season, when Emery blocked a loan move to Augsburg but rarely gave Nketiah the minutes to prove his worth in an Arsenal shirt.
"The manager wanted me to stay so it's really confidence-boosting for me that he had me in his plans," Nketiah said.
"But I felt like it was a good step for me to come to Leeds. I hope it's a good year that can leave me in good stead going back to Arsenal to fight for a place.
"There were a lot of options, there were options for me to go to Germany but me, my family and the club decided Leeds was the best place."
Arsenal held a thorough auditioning process to find Nketiah's next club, whittling down to a shortlist of three teams - Leeds, Bristol City and Fortuna Dusseldorf - who were brought to London Colney to present to a group of senior Arsenal figures including academy chief Per Mertesacker, loan manager Ben Knapper and Nketiah himself.
With Nketiah out on loan Nicolas Pepe has already been used as a striker on occasion by Unai Emery, who could hand game time to the highly-rated Tyreece John-Jules during the EFL Cup and Europa League.
