Ethan Nwaneri today became the youngest player to ever feature in the Premier League – breaking Liverpool’s Harvey Elliot who held the record previously. Aged 15 years and 181 days, the player came on in the final minutes of Arsenal’s 3-0 win against Brentford.
The youngest player that Arsenal ever fielded prior to Nwaneri was Cesc Fabregas, aged 16 years 5 months 24 days.
Ethan Nwaneri becomes youngest Premier League footballer
Here is what Mikel Arteta had to say about the record set by the youngster, and why he gave Ethan Nwaneri the chance:
“It was a pure gut feeling. I met the boy (and) really liked what I saw.
“Per Mertesacker and the academy staff are giving me really good information, Edu as well. I met him, he’s trained a couple of times with us. He had to come because we have injuries, especially the injury of Martin (Odegaard), and then I had that feeling that if the opportunity could come that I was going to do it.”
Explaining on the gut feeling, he said:
“I don’t know what it is. When I met him, when I look at him, I had that feeling.”
Nwaneri only made his debut for the under 18s in May, and has now been handed his first team debut under Mikel Arteta. It now remains to be seen whether he can earn a consistent place among the seniors.
