Captain Eddie hails Arteta

EDDIE NKETIAH will captain england Under 21s tonight and hailed Mikel Arteta for elevating his game within months at Arsenal. The striker will wear the armband for the first time in the european Championship qualifier in Kosovo after a startling rise since Arteta’s arrival at the emirates Stadium. Nketiah, who started last weekend’s Community Shield victory over Liverpool, believes the Spaniard has given every youngster at the club an incentive to make their mark. ‘Mikel has taught me a lot,’ said Nketiah, 21. ‘he is definitely very personable. he does a lot of tactical work about understanding your role. As a player, it’s great to see the manager going into such detail — it shows how much he cares. ‘As a young player, if you have the right mentality, you can definitely improve under him and that’s something I’m trying to do. ‘he’s helped my all-round game, given me chances to express myself, make mistakes and try to correct them. I’m learning on the job.’ Nketiah has a goal-a-game record with the Young Lions and manager Aidy Boothroyd informed him of the captaincy when the squad met up at St George’s Park on Monday. england are top of their qualifying group and victories against Kosovo and then away in Austria on Tuesday would effectively see them through to next year’s tournament. ‘These are two really tough games,’ said Boothroyd. ‘If we get positive results that lead to points, it’ll put us in a really good position.’