Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta is excited about the future talent in his ranks Ethan Nwaneri who stole the show against Bolton in the midweek.
Mikel Arteta in the first week of his work with Arsenal 2019 got news about a boy who is playing way ahead of his age category. So first a word from the Arsenal academy coach to one of the promising stars in the world of football. The media lenses turned towards the Emirates when Ethan Nwaneri became the youngest Gunner to play for the senior team at the age of just 15.
ETHAN NWANERI AT ARSENAL
Nwaneri joined Arsenal in 2016 when he was just nine years old. From a young age, he showcased great talent and quickly matured up through the academy teams. When Mikel Arteta joined in as new manager at the Emirates he was made aware of the fact about an exceptional talent by their academy coach Dan Micciche. The then 12 year old Nwaneri was already making waves with the U16 Arsenal team.
According football.london, It is said that Mikel Arteta was so impressed with young Ethan that he quickly compared him to Man City star Phil Foden. It is also said that the Gunners boss had started mapping Nwaneri’s path to the first team from 2019. Micciche also revealed that Ethan’s biggest quality was decision making.
Fast forward to 2022, Nwaneri made history when he came on as a substitute against Brentford to become the youngest even player to make his Premier League debut. He was only just 15 years and 181 days when he achieved that feat. This just showed how much faith Arsenal had in his talent.
Ethan plays as a midfielder known for his creativity, quick decision making, vison and box to box qualities. Even though he made his debut in 2022 he gets only minimum first team minutes. But if we just analyze the minutes has been increasing gradually with year. It might be because of the physicality of the PL and the risk of getting injured at this tender age. Anyway with Gunners captain Martin Odegaard injured Nwaneri has been making regular substitute appearances.
PERFORMANCE AGAINST BOLTON
Ethan Nwaneri made his first senior start for Arsenal during their Carabao Cup tie with Bolton Wanderers in the midweek. He was not the only academy player to make their first senior starts but all eyes were glued to Ethan Nwaneri who started in midfield. It was an amazing day for Nwaneri and Arsenal as they saw their young prospect shine with a brace.
The midfielder banged in two goals in each half. First one coming in the 37th minute when Nwaneri had the job to just tap it in thanks to a clever low cross from Raheem Sterling. And the second one came just after the start of the second half. During the 49th minute of the game when Declan rice capitalized on a defensive mistake by the opposition and teed up young Nwaneri for his second and Arsenal’s third. Not only the goals he had a high goal expectancy rate only beaten by Raheem Sterling.
“Let’s go, it’s another step, I think it’s ahead of what anyone could have expected, in his journey with the first team he’s always ahead of what anyone expected and what I expected as well. He’s part of us so he will have the minutes.”
This is what Mikel Arteta had to say about how close Nwaneri towards a start in the Premier League is. Taken from official Arsenal website.
FANS IN AWE OF ETHAN NWANERI
So many Arsenal fans were in awe of the 16 year old’s performance against Bolton Wanderers. Just look at some of the fan comments.
It is clear that fans are really in awe with their wonderkid. The Arsenal faithful and Mikel Arteta equally believe in young Ethan Nwaneri.
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