Nwaneri’s full circle moment as Arsenal’s teen sensation gives Arteta much-needed boost | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta hailed the brilliant Ethan Nwaneri story after the Arsenal teenager marked his first Premier League start on his return to Brentford with an excellent display in the 3-1 victory.

Nwanier, 17, made his Arsenal debut against Brentford back in September 2022 as a 15-year-old and has been carefully nurtured by Arteta since then.

Illnesses and injuries paved the way for Nwaneri to earn a first Premier League start two years on and the winger took his opportunity.

“Well, in that position it wasn’t because of the bug, it was a decision I made because I thought he was the best player to play in the position to start the game and because there was a story there with his debut here,” Arteta spoke post match.

“He made his Premier League debut and sometimes that feeling comes in and you feel it is the right one and then who knows?

“Part of that development is patience, managing frustration, managing expectation because you expect that everything is going to go so fast as the previous things happen and its not the case.

“So now we’re building him, he’s already played a lot of games, a lot of minutes for us, the age that he’s got and he fully deserves that.”

Arsenal impressively fought back from an early setback at Brentford to move to within six points of leaders Liverpool.

“It’s a very difficult place to come. Their record at home, the way they play, they cause issues to opponents, very impressive,” Arteta continued.

“On top of that, we went a goal down and it became a big mountain to climb.

“I think the team showed a lot of composure, was very calm emotionally because we needed that in today’s game and as well had the right desire to keep persisting, attacking them in the way that can cause them problems which is difficult.

“So overall I think we deserved to win the game.”