Ethan Nwaneri has broken out into the Arsenal squad this season, and has become one of Mikel Arteta’s best-performing players.
The 17-year-old is sure to be one of Arsenal’s future stars, following the career path that Bukayo Saka set out (he also broke out aged 17).
Nwaneri has become a regular in Arteta’s team, both coming off the bench and in the starting XI, especially due to the injuries to Gabriel Jesus and Bukayo Saka in the winter of the 2024/25 season.
Another academy product who has began to really make his mark on the Gunners, alongside Myles Lewis-Skelly, who has also broken out this season under Mikel Arteta.
From Premier League record-breaker to Arsenal regular
Nwaneri began his footballing career when he was just eight years old in 2015. He joined the Arsenal youth setup and began to work his way up the age groups.
Remarkably, by the age of 14, Nwaneri was already making appearances for the U18s on a regular basis. But, in the 2022-23 season, the midfielder was promoted quickly to the U21s team after he’d made a total of 23 appearances, scoring 15 goals at U18s level.
Nwaneri found similar success in the U21s, making 28 appearances in total, scoring 11 goals and contributing five assists.
Just months after he was promoted to the U21s, Nwaneri found himself training with the first team on a more regular basis, before he made his debut in September 2022 in a Premier League game against Brentford.
He came on as a substitute and became a Premier League record breaker, as the youngest ever player to appear in the competition, aged 15 years, and 181 days. The record was previously held by Liverpool midfielder Harvey Elliot. However, that appearance was his only one in the 2022-23 season.
The following year, Nwaneri also made just one appearance for the Gunners as a substitute in a Premier League match against West Ham. However, the 2024-25 season has been a different story.
Nwaneri’s breakout season
He scored his first goal for Arsenal during a Carabao Cup match against Bolton Wanderers, as he netted twice in the third round match.
His performances led Arteta to make him more of a first team regular, and at the time of writing, Nwaneri has made 21 appearances for Arsenal in all competitions this season, scoring six goals.
One of those six came in a 2-1 Champions League win against Girona, in what was Nwaneri’s first goal in the Champions League. It was also his first start in the competition.
He said after the game in an interview for Arsenal’s official website: “To come here and win Man of the Match on my starting debut, It’s a special feeling. I’m happy.
“Listening to the music was surreal, that’s the moment I’ve lived for my whole life. The music was special to me, so that was great. It’s crazy, life moves fast.
“I was happy to have contributed with the goal. It was just all instinct, I just saw the space. I just sensed that the goalkeeper wouldn’t expect the shot, so I took it and scored.”