Arsenal U18 coach Jack Wilshere labelled Ethan Nwaneri ‘unplayable’ following a sparkling display in the 3-3 Premier League Cup draw with Manchester United, speaking to the Gunners’ official website.
Whether or not Mikel Arteta will live to rue making a 15-year-old wonderkid the youngest player in Premier League history remains to be seen. On one hand, it was a real show of faith in the teenager. A reminder as to how highly he is regarded behind the scenes at London Colney amid interest from top-flight rivals Liverpool.
On the other, Nwaneri will now have to cope with the additional scrutiny and the pressure that comes with being a Premier League record-breaker. How he handles that, only time will tell.
Nwaneri’s wonderful display during Arsenal’s six-goal thriller with Manchester United this weekend, at least, shows that a player born in 2007 is not letting himself get distracted by all of the outside interest.
ETHAN NWANERI SHINING AT ARSENAL
“In the first half, he tried to find the spaces, playing in people’s backs and creating space for himself, and we couldn’t find him a little bit,” Wilshere says of Nwaneri, who danced and waltzed his way across the turf against United, scoring two fabulous individual goals along the way.
“In the second half, he was very good. He was unplayable at times. He had a few good moments. In the second half a lot of players stepped up a level, we found some more space.
“We spoke to them a little bit at halftime about few tactical things which allowed Ethan to free up. We had a really good balance in the team and Ethan was good in the second half.”
Nwaneri, who was just three months old when Arsenal signed Bacary Sagna from Auxerre in the summer of 2007, has two goals and three assists in four U18 Premier League games this season.
‘VERY, VERY SPECIAL
“I am doing my coaching license and I have trained (him in) the u16s. You can see a big difference with him and the other guys. He is very, very special,” Gunners midfielder Granit Xhaka tells CBS Sport.
“Of course, you have to protect him as he is very young. But if he keeps going like this with his hard work, he has a big, big future.
“He is not with us a lot in training. I have maybe seen him two or three times now. He is very shy, of course, but the time will come when he will be more with us. You have to protect him and help him.
“Football is not everything for him and for us. But, yes, the club will help him and the experienced players have to help him.”
