When you are mentioned in the same sentence as Cesc Fabregas, the future must be bright.
Arsenal returned to winning ways by overcoming Nottingham Forest 3-0 thanks to some familiar names – and an exciting 17-year-old talent.
Mikel Arteta’s side had fallen away in the Premier League title race after failing to win their previous four games.
But Bukayo Saka, who pulled out of England’s recent Nations League fixtures with a leg injury, set Arsenal on their way with his first goal in five matches after combining with captain Martin Odegaard.
Saka then teed up Thomas Partey to double the lead before attacking midfielder Ethan Nwaneri, who does not turn 18 until March, offered a glimpse into Arsenal’s future by sealing the points with his first top-flight goal.
London-born Nwaneri (17 years and 247 days old) became the second-youngest player to score a Premier League goal for Arsenal, behind only Fabregas (17 years and 113 days in 2004), who went on to win the World Cup with Spain.
“I have seen Ethan Nwaneri a couple of times and he’s extra special,” former Scotland winger Pat Nevin told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“Arsenal left Kai Havertz and Declan Rice out and we hardly even noticed it.”
It was the perfect way for Arteta to mark his 250th game in charge of the Gunners, who moved six points behind leaders Liverpool having played one game more.
‘Brick by brick’
Nwaneri became the youngest player in Premier League history when he came on in the closing moments of Arsenal’s 3-0 win at Brentford in September 2022 aged just 15 years and 181 days.
“School in the morning, he’s got school in the morning,” sang Arsenal’s travelling fans at the time.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of fans inside Emirates Stadium sang “he’s one of our own, Ethan Nwaneri, he’s one of our own” after he scored.
Fans have been calling for the teenager to get more minutes after promising performances in the EFL Cup, and his well-taken goal against Forest will only add to the clamour.
He has scored four goals in 238 minutes this season, with 170 of those minutes in the EFL Cup, 60 in the Premier League and eight in the Champions League.
Across the big five European leagues, Nwaneri is one of only two players aged under 18 to have scored more than once across all competitions this term after 17-year-old Barcelona and Spain talent Lamine Yamal.
Arteta explained why he was managing Nwaneri’s minutes “step by step” after the win over Forest.
“He’s giving us all the reasons to play, another reason to put him there,” said the Arsenal boss.
“I am responsible to build a career for him. You have to do that brick by brick. Today he put another brick.
“Now we have to put cement, make sure it doesn’t get dry so we can put another one and that will stick. Then we put one more layer, one more layer.
“If you want to put five in a row believe me – it won’t work. We have to manage not only his expectation but his workload as well, which is really important.
“You can sense how much the crowd loves watching this kid play and the energy.”
‘Very lucky to have Saka & Odegaard’
Odegaard now has two assists in his past two league appearances since returning from a serious ankle injury.
“It’s not a coincidence, the team flows in a different way when he is playing,” added Arteta.
“When he’s in the team, you can sense something that is different. It’s difficult to put a finger on it, but it’s different.”
Meanwhile, Saka finished the game with another assist – his eighth in the Premier League this season – as well as opening the scoring.
Arteta believes a fit and firing Odegaard and Saka can help haul the Gunners – who had dropped 10 points in their previous four league games before Saturday – back into the title race.
“There’s chemistry, sometimes you meet somebody, straight away you make eye contact and something flows. That’s the case with those two,” said Arteta.
“When you put them together in the right spaces, things flourish and things happen naturally. With others, you try to force it and it doesn’t work.
“With these two, we are very lucky to have them.”