Eddie Nketiah looks set to play a key part in Arsenal's remaining nine league games this season.
Sent out on loan to Leeds United at the start of the campaign to gain some valuable experience of playing in a first-team environment, the young striker returned to the club at the turn of the year after a frustrating spell at Elland Road.
Brought in to boost the West Yorkshire club's attacking options, the 21-year-old couldn't get ahead of Patrick Bamford in the pecking order and in the end had to settle for two starts and 15 substitute appearances in his 17 league games for the Championship side.
Rather than send the player out on loan again so that he could feature regularly, Mikel Arteta has elected to keep him at the club and given him minutes on the pitch.
Nketiah has made eight appearances for the Gunners since the turn of the year, scoring three goals in the process.
The England U21 international has started in the team's last four Premier League games, including Wednesday evening's return to football against Man City.
Instead of starting Alexandre Lacazette through the middle or move Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang centrally from his spot on the left, Arteta kept faith with Nketiah.
The youngster did show what he is capable of on a few occasions in the first half but, despite creating some chances with his speed and movement, he couldn't test Ederson in goal.
Man City's back four wasn't exactly blessed with pace and it gave the player a chance to cause trouble for the likes of the inexperienced Eric Garcia.
Nketiah was having a good tussle with the player just past the half hour mark but he unfortunately didn't win a free-kick outside the box despite the City player appearing to have his arm around his shoulder.
One of the added benefits to playing in an empty stadium is that it's quite easy to pick up the instructions managers shout to their team as they would usually be drowned out by the sound from the crowd.
Well, Nketiah's bit of play did seem to go down well with his boss as he could be heard shouting "Eddie, I like" from his technical area.
Not only was it pleasing to see the Lewisham-born player use his strength to give Garcia a hard time, but his run between the Spaniard and Aymeric Laporte was very good as he burst through to get on the end of David Luiz's long ball.
Nketiah is certainly doing something right at present to become a key part of Arteta's plans and we will undoubtedly see a lot more of him before the season draws to a close.
