Arsenal shocked the footballing world in September when Mikel Arteta decided to substitute 15-year-old Ethan Nwaneri on for the final minutes of the match against Brentford. His introduction meant that he became the youngest player to ever play in a Premier League match at aged just 15 years and 181 days old.
Arteta's side started the season excellently with six wins from seven fixtures, which saw the Gunners sit at the top of the table heading into the September international break. This made the debut of Nwaneri even more impressive due to the fact that he was able to break into such an in-form squad.
Fast forward three months after making his debut, and Nwaneri has now smashed another record. Nwaneri is the first player to be called up for a first-team game at Emirates Stadium who was born after the stadium opened in July 2006.
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Arsenal welcome Juventus to north London to play their final scheduled game of the mid-season break to prepare for the Premier League’s restart. Nwaneri had been named on the Gunners’ substitute bench for the fixture against the Old Lady.
In 2021, Nwaneri had marked his under-18s debut with a stunning strike against Reading at just 14-years-old, catching the eye of Gunners supporters who are hoping for big things from the promising talent.
Nwaneri has also been highly rated as a youth prospect. A former, unnamed Arsenal coach told VAVEL recently : “At the moment, we've got two U16s where if I had to pick out a top ten of all the players I've known of in 30 years of being at Arsenal, these two would be in my top ten, they're outstanding.
"One is a boy called Myles Lewis-Skelly and the other is Ethan Nwaneri, and my biggest worry about them is if we can keep them because I would say all the biggest clubs in the country will be sniffing around trying to get them.”
Nwaneri continued to impress in youth team matches, which is a testament to his incredible potential. The youngster will continue to hope for more first-team call-ups in the near future.
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