Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is cautious in his approach to giving the youngster Ethan Nwaneri more game time after he starred in Saturday’s 3-0 Premier League home win against Nottingham Forest, Afrosport reports.
The 17-year-old English midfielder of Nigerian heritage came on for captain Martin Odegaard with just seven minutes of regular time left and scored three minutes after his introduction.
It was the first Premier League goal for Nwaneri and made him Arsenal’s second youngest goalscorer after Cesc Fabregas.
Arteta admitted that he is tempted to play Nwaneri more but wants take it one step at a time with him.
“I am always tempted. I think he’s the second-youngest player for the club to score in the Premier League,” the Spaniard told the club website.
“It’s giving us all the reason and today is another reason to put him there but that’s when I play him and not somebody else. It’s step-by-step, I would say.”
17 – At 17 years and 247 days, Ethan Nwaneri is now Arsenal’s second youngest Premier League goalscorer, behind only Cesc Fàbregas against Blackburn in August 2004 (17y 113d). Prodigy. pic.twitter.com/VQPzJhoKhi
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 23, 2024
Regarding managing expectations of Nwaneri, Arteta said: “Something I cannot do myself, I cannot manage expectations. I will try to educate him, raise him, and give him the pathway that we believe is the best.
“His family, his agent, his friends, they will be very important as well. Don’t listen too much to the noise, focus on what he does which is to play football and he loves every minute of it and good things will happen to him for sure.”
Arsenal sit in fourth place on the Premier League standings, tied on 22 points with third-placed Chelsea and fifth-placed Brighton & Hove Albion.
