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This is a busy time for anyone working in Arsenal’s communications department. New sporting director Andrea Berta is securing signings at a pace almost unprecedented in the club’s modern history, and the social media team must be remonstrating with higher-ups that there are only so many ways you can unveil a player online.
Arrivals and acquisitions aren’t the only pieces of business that Berta has had to attend to, however. Having formally taken up his role on March 30, replacing former ‘Invincible’ Edu, he has also has to play a major role in tying players down to new contracts. Gabriel Magalhaes and Myles Lewis-Skelly have already committed their long-term futures to the Gunners, and Ethan Nwaneri is next in line.
After entering the last 12 months of his contract, there was concern in north London that Nwaneri would run down the remainder of his deal and look for a move away, but he is instead set to put pen to paper and extend his stay.
Nwaneri’s talent is obvious to anyone who has watched him play, though what isn’t as clear is how he fits into Mikel Arteta’s setup. Even though the pathway to a starting role is a tricky one to navigate, there’s plenty of reason to believe the 18-year-old can make a splash this coming season and beyond.
This is a busy time for anyone working in Arsenal’s communications department. New sporting director Andrea Berta is securing signings at a pace almost unprecedented in the club’s modern history, and the social media team must be remonstrating with higher-ups that there are only so many ways you can unveil a player online.
Arrivals and acquisitions aren’t the only pieces of business that Berta has had to attend to, however. Having formally taken up his role on March 30, replacing former ‘Invincible’ Edu, he has also has to play a major role in tying players down to new contracts. Gabriel Magalhaes and Myles Lewis-Skelly have already committed their long-term futures to the Gunners, and Ethan Nwaneri is next in line.
After entering the last 12 months of his contract, there was concern in north London that Nwaneri would run down the remainder of his deal and look for a move away, but he is instead set to put pen to paper and extend his stay.
Nwaneri’s talent is obvious to anyone who has watched him play, though what isn’t as clear is how he fits into Mikel Arteta’s setup. Even though the pathway to a starting role is a tricky one to navigate, there’s plenty of reason to believe the 18-year-old can make a splash this coming season and beyond.
Nwaneri was a hot topic on the youth football scene even before he became the youngest debutant in الدوري الإنجليزي الممتاز history back in September 2022, aged only 15 years and 181 days. To put that into perspective, he had to hand in English GCSE homework 24 hours later.
After introducing the teenager for his first appearance in that 3-0 win at Brentford, Arteta said: “The first day I met him I looked him in his eyes and everyone was telling me about him, Per [Mertesacker, academy manager] was telling me about him, and because of the injuries we only have 12 or 13 senior players yesterday to put in the squad and we decided to bring him, and that’s it.
“It’s one step, one experience, so enjoy it and congratulations! It’s just one step and all the steps in your career are not forward and you have to know that. You can go forward then backwards and then forwards. You fall, you go back – that’s, unfortunately, this industry and the football career of any player.”
As Arteta alluded to, playing first-team minutes at such an age doesn’t necessarily mean you will be fulfil your potential or hit the highest heights. Here are the names of the other nine players who make up the list of top 10 Premier League youngest debutants: Jeremy Monga, Harvey Elliott, Matthew Briggs, Izzy Brown, Aaron Lennon, Jose Baxter, Rushian Hepburn-Murphy, Gary McSheffrey and Reece Oxford. It’s not exactly a group of A-listers.
Arteta is, nevertheless, impressed by Nwaneri and has vowed to handle his progression personally. The Gunners boss said back in November: “I will try to educate him, raise him, and give him the pathway that we believe is the best. His family, his agent, his friends, they will be very important as well. Don’t listen too much to the noise, focus on what he does which is to play football and he loves every minute of it, and good things will happen to him for sure.”
Indeed, Nwaneri ended 2024-25 with a whopping 37 appearances across all competitions, registering nine goals and two assists, while he secured a nomination for the PFA Young Player of the Year award to boot. There was also buzz over a potential England call-up given his fine form over the winter when the Arsenal first team was hit by an injury crisis. His standout moment came when he fired in his side’s fifth goal in a 5-1 drubbing of Manchester City, cutting inside and blasting into the back of the net in a style that is starting to become trademark.
“I knew I’d do something if I got the ball,” he told The Athletic last month of that goal. “Then Dec [Rice] luckily saw me. You don’t really think, you just do it. You think about it afterwards. (That finish comes) from a young age, practising in the park for ages. I’ve always been playing on the right more, so I’ve always kind of been cutting in on my left foot. So I’ve just developed over the years, it’s really just come from me, naturally.”
This is experience that should only prove helpful to Nwaneri’s development and adjustment to the adult game. He’s already developed a jink and ability to create a yard of space on the edge of the 18-yard box, while his shot is amongst the most powerful in the entire Arsenal squad already. There’s a reason he was ranked sixth in the 2025 NXGN list.
When it was reported by The Athletic that negotiations between Arsenal and Nwaneri over a new deal were at their closing stages, they made sure to mention that the plan moving forward would be to test the youngster in a more central role as opposed to on the wing.
The signing of Noni Madueke from Chelsea also suggests that there will be more limited opportunities coming in place of Bukayo Saka on the right, and Nwaneri’s proficiency in central areas make him an unnatural fit for the left wing spot that remains up for grabs in Arteta’s strongest XI. It’s a proposition that Nwaneri is ready for.
“You can see sometimes I’m a natural midfielder,” he said last month. “But I think if the manager wants you to play in a position, you have to do it to the best of your abilities. I don’t mind playing there because anywhere for the Arsenal first team I’ll be happy playing, and trying to do a good job for the team. I’ve played false nine before a few times, actually. I think I can do a role anywhere that the manager needs me.”
Madueke’s arrival will no doubt have an impact on how Nwaneri is used, but so too will Martin Zubimendi, the metronomic playmaker signed from Real Sociedad. In theory, the Spaniard should be able to alleviate the No.10, be that Martin Odegaard or Nwaneri, from creative responsibilities in deeper areas and allow them to probe higher up the pitch, even making them more of a goal threat. In this advanced role, Odegaard hit 15 Premier League goals during 2022-23, but has scored just 11 combined in the two seasons since after being dragged back into build-up more often. Nwaneri, a more fierce ball-striker and powerful dribbler, could take advantage of such a tactical tweak if Zubimendi is a consistent starter.
Arsenal themselves are known for promoting youth, not least given the fame of their Hale End academy. But when Borussia Dortmund and Chelsea are among the clubs who are looking to sign you, that’s when you know you’re an elite prospect.
The Blues and BVB were more strongly linked with Nwaneri over the last couple of months when contract talks appeared to be going awry, or at least not according to Arsenal’s plan. Nevertheless, despite the temptation of perhaps a more coherent roadmap into the starting XI elsewhere, Nwaneri has decided to stay in north London, and his family have hit back at suggestions he held the Gunners to ransom in contract talks.
After suggesting that Nwaneri had ‘done nothing in the game’ to make demands to Arsenal, ex-Wales striker and TalkSPORT pundit Dean Saunders clarified earlier this week: “I was on the putting green at Effingham and Jay Bothroyd went to school with his [Nwaneri’s] dad. He said, ‘Can you put Dean on?’ So I spoke to his dad, and fair play to him, he said that [demanding more game time] never happened.
“I said, ‘If it’s true, we were reacting to what was said in the newspaper’. So he should take it up with the newspaper as they wrote the story. They’re all Aston Villa fans and he said, ‘We’ve had the criticism off [Jamie] O’Hara and [Jason] Cundy, but when it comes from you, it hurts’. I said, ‘I’m not criticising him, he’s a great young player but if you’re demanding game time off Arteta…’ which apparently he didn’t, so there you go. I spoke to his dad and he was a lovely bloke.”
The rise of Nwaneri has been compared to that of Saka, who also came through at Hale End and could well end his career as Arsenal’s finest ever academy graduate.
“That creates belief in the building, to all those in the academy and the young players that there is a clear pathway, that we are going to give them opportunities and if they earn it they will be treated like the rest,” Arteta previously said about Saka setting an example to Nwaneri. It is, therefore, ironic that the Gunners’ current No.7 is one of the main obstacles to a place in the first XI.
Saka is one of the most undroppable players in world football, which is good enough reason as any for Arsenal to try and develop Nwaneri in an attacking midfield role instead. The problem there is that club captain Odegaard is the one to displace. As mentioned earlier, there are parts of Nwaneri’s game which are more suited to the No.10, but he is still not as hard a worker on the pitch or as accomplished a passer than the Norway international ahead of him in the pecking order.
Arteta has been criticised in the recent past, too, for his over-reliance on Odegaard, particularly when he’s been either out of form or lacking in fitness. It would take a significant change in modus operandi for Nwaneri to get an extended look in, especially with Arsenal now under pressure to deliver titles and how vital relationship-building is to the attacking midfield position.
The roaring success of Lewis-Skelly’s first season in the first-team fold, announcing himself as one of the Premier League’s finest left-backs despite never playing that position before December 2024, has led to some fans questioning why Nwaneri hasn’t been given free rein in the XI too. It’s important to know how footballers and their careers can be the victim of circumstance.
Lewis-Skelly, a central midfielder at youth level, was drafted in at left-back given his skillset which suited the position, with Arteta tasking him to come infield when in possession. It’s to the teenager’s credit that he quickly improved all other facets of his game to nail down that spot.
This isn’t as easy a fix with Nwaneri. If he were right footed, then he would arguably already have a spot in the XI on the left wing, but hey, life isn’t perfect. Furthermore, Nwaneri lacks the same physicality and explosiveness than his best friend, though he has been spotted in training vests looking far more ripped and muscular than he did last season. It’s unfair to pit the two against each other.
Nwaneri only turned 18 back in March and could have another two decades at the top level of football ahead of him. There is understandably a clamour to see more of him right away, but sometimes player development can’t be rushed or fast-tracked. Arsenal’s status as contenders for the Premier League and Champions League, as well as Arteta’s burning desire to win immediately after five years without a trophy, means Nwaneri’s progress could still be a slow burner for a little while yet.
“The biggest thing is to push him and then when he is pushing you grab him from behind to make sure he is stable and protected. This talent you have to push him,” Arteta has said of Nwaneri. “Protection is necessary, keeping an eye on him, but he needs to see that he can go and fly and not cut his wings. I can talk about how good he is right now and the position he is at, at one of the biggest clubs in Europe, sums up really well the level he has.
“What happens in the future is going to depend on him and how much he wants it. At the moment he wants it a lot and he is surrounded by the right people. The crystal ball to see what he is going to be in two or three years, no. My prediction is going to be very positive.”
Nwaneri, for his part, is ready to put in the hard yards to be a success: “I want to play forward. I want to be a positive player, one who affects the game, who can control the game, who scores goals. I think that’s just my game. There’s loads of stuff that I can add to my game. I think defence, (playing) inside, my physical capacity, there’s loads of stuff that I can get to work on in my game.”
Arsenal have reportedly cooled their interest in attacking midfielders Eberechi Eze and Xavi Simons amid their breakthrough with Nwaneri, which itself is quite the vote of confidence from club management. Now he just needs ample opportunity to repay it.
