Arteta with Nwaneri

Newcastle game shows that Arteta is right to introduce Nwaneri slowly to the Arsenal team

Calls for Nwaneri to be a consistent starter are understandable but his second half display against Newcastle shows Arteta is right to ease him in. 

 Some Gooners can agree with me that Ethan Nwaneri went missing after his earlier than usual introduction in the second half against Newcastle. Apart from a few bright spots like drawing a yellow card offence from Joe Willock and a lovely cross field run, then you can clearly see he wasn’t as influential as some of us may have hoped.

Don’t get me wrong, this is not an article critiquing the youngster, in fact I’m thinking of the exact opposite given the high ceiling he has in his career ahead and also his age.  

 When he was about to be substituted on in the 60th minute or thereabout, the level of excitement within me was through the roof, however I quickly reasoned the kind of game we were going to bring him in.

Joe Willock of Newcastle United fouls Ethan Nwaneri of Arsenal
NOVEMBER 02: Joe Willock of Newcastle United fouls Ethan Nwaneri of Arsenal during the Premier League match between Newcastle United FC and Arsenal FC at St James’ Park on November 02, 2024 in Newcastle (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)

Newcastle away is always a physical and scrappy game so I feared for how the 17 year old Nwaneri would fare in this atmosphere, surely enough my fears were seemingly justified a few seconds in when he got clattered by Joe Willock, he survived that scare however, but he found it difficult to impose himself as the game went on. 

 I think Arteta is right to ease him in considering the amount of pressure that will be forced upon him to be our chief creator in midfield while we await the return of Ødegaard.

Furthermore, his not so good performance against Newcastle should remind us that he won’t deliver immediately and especially against these sort of opposition. 

 I still loved the fact that Arteta gave him a chance earlier though which I think should be a regular theme going forward this season. 

 

Thoughts on this gooners? 

 

KENNETH BENJAMIN. 


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13 Comments

  1. People aren’t calling for Nwaneri to be a consistent starter. They are only calling for him to start while Odegaard is out and the form of other players has gone bad. He is now part of the first team and needs to be treated as such. If he started and played poorly against Bournemouth and Newcastle well Arteta wasn’t to know but at least he was doing the right thing by starting him in the context of how things were happening at the time.

  2. Absolute twaddle. How many passes did Nwaneri receive? He is a creative player , give him the ball! He was pretty much frozen out by his team mates, was that protection or fear he would show it’s done?

  3. We have no creativity, Trossard has disappeared and so has his production. Rice and Merino can’t create or drive forward with the ball, club sold ESR, so what option do we have?

    What do we have to lose? We are playing our best midfielder at RB rather than play Nwaneri. Trossard has been awful 3 games now, even dropping Havertz deeper into midfield leaving no one in CF position centrally.

    Tried everything except giving the kid a chance. How can anyone know he’s not ready if he never gets a chance to prove it?

    Spare me about “training” and how someone performs in training. It is nothing like a real game, so training productivity does not equal game productivity.

    If it did Martinelli would be on top form, Jesus scoring on the regular, and we would not be so unbalanced.

    Always an excuse it seems. Arteta got this wrong, plain and simple. He is struggling to find an answer, has no plan B, and needs to get it sorted quickly. Can’t run to the checkbook to fix this one.

  4. I guess in your eyes Kenneth, Arteta will always be right, regardless and any reasoning can be used to justify a bad day at the office on his part.

  5. Right to ease him in? Really? You need to blood these talents. If they cant handle the pressure, they aint going to make it regardless of how much eading in. The prob with arteta is he eiyher doesnt allow enough time for players to aettle OR he allows too much leeway, trossard is a sub, not a starter yet all the 3 games he has been cost us points. He got saliba sent off yet still starts.
    Nwaneri had a non game against newcastle but lets see if he is really a talent. Give him more game time..he cant be any worse than trossard or havertz in midfield?

  6. Arteta has proven his credentials in grooming young players. His handling of Saliba was superb and the team is reaping the dividends.
    At the time we all wanted Arteta’s head on a platter for not drafting the young Frenchman into the Arsenal first team pronto. Many fans, me included, questioned why the club splashed 50 million on White while there was a “world class” CB rotting away on loan in France! But now we all know better.
    So please let’s allow Arteta do to his magic once again on Nwaneri

    1. How did Arteta groom Saliba? By sending him out on loan (how many others as he sent out on loan that came back to deliver). Saliba is an exceptional talent, don’t give unnecessary credit to MA.
      The fact is he hasn’t introduced anyone into the first 11 from the academy in his 5yrs

      1. I think you must be referring to just the Premier League in your final sentence as Ethan has started two games (Bolton & Preston) this season alone.

  7. Ethan did not “go missing” because his teammates rarely found him. This was not his fault, as he took up good positions, but was completely ignored for much of his thirty minutes.

  8. Arteta is not “always right”
    He said he’s managing the kid but decided to now throw him into a “WAR ZONE” when he became desperate because his FAVORITE SOLDIER were inefficient
    The best time to introduce EN into the starting 11 was Southampton and Bournemouth. Any of the recent games will bring too much pressure and scrutiny. POOR MANAGEMENT

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