Against the tough opponent Brentford, Mikel Arteta surprised many people when he brought on young striker Ethan Nwaneri from the start to replace Bukayo Saka. In response to the 42-year-old coach's trust, the 17-year-old player had an excellent performance.
In the first half, Ethan Nwaneri was the only player on the Gunners' side to successfully complete 100% of his passes (17/17) and created 2 scoring opportunities for his teammates. It was this youngster's uncomfortable cross that created conditions for Martinelli to score the winning goal to seal a 3-1 victory for Arsenal.
At 17 years and 286 days, Nwaneri is the third young player to start for Arsenal in the Premier League, behind only Cesc Fabregas (17 years and 103 days against Everton in August 2004) and Theo Walcott (17 years and 212 days against Watford in October 2006).
Striker Ethan Nwaneri also set a milestone as the youngest player ever to play in the Premier League (15 years and 181 days), when he came on as a substitute for Arsenal in the Brentford match in September 2022.
After the match, Mikel Arteta praised his student: "In training, his performance convinced me. This is an academy-age player and deserves a place in the Arsenal first team.
With Ethan Nwaneri's impressive performance against Brentford, The Gunners are certainly extremely confident in the context of Bukayo Saka's long-term absence. At this time, Arsenal has risen to second place with 39 points, 6 points behind leaders Liverpool but has played one more match.
Mikel Arteta's team is on an 11-match unbeaten streak in all competitions, including 3 consecutive wins in the Premier League. They are also the team that has scored the most goals from corners in the top flight of England with 9.
