Granit Xhaka has lauded Arsenal debutant Ethan Nwaneri, saying the ‘very special’ Gunners talent has a ‘big, big future’ ahead of him.
Mikel Arteta’s team travelled for Sunday’s London match without Martin Odegaard due to injury, which allowed Nwaneri to make the matchday lineup.
The teenager was named on the bench as Fabio Vieira started in the number 10 position, during which the Portuguese produced a fantastic long-range goal to put the Gunners up 3-0.
With a dominant Arsenal team out of sight in the final minutes, Arteta introduced Nwaneri in added time, making the Englishman the Premier League’s youngest-ever player at 15 years and 181 days.
What Did Granit Xhaka Say About Ethan Nwaneri?
Ethan Nwaneri smashed the previous record held by Harvey Elliott, who made his top-flight debut for Fulham at the age of 16 years and 30 days, and Xhaka, who is taking his coaching badges with the Arsenal youth teams, has not stopped praising the midfielder.
“We have to check the passport first! I am joking. To have a guy who is 15 and is nearly 15 years younger than me,” Xhaka told CBS Sport after the game.
“He looks old when I see him, but the club can be proud of a player like him. He has a big future. I am doing my coaching licence and I have trained the under-16s.
“You can see a big difference with him and the other guys. He is very, very special. You have to protect him as he is very young but if he keeps going like this with his hard work he has a big, big future.
“It’s not only me that feels old. I spoke with one Brentford guy and I told him this guy was 15 and he looked at me and said: ‘F*** me, we are looking old. When you have 15 years difference you think ‘OK, the time is not gone but it is on the way’. But we are enjoying him, he is enjoying us as he has the quality.”
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Manager Arteta revealed after giving Ethan Nwaneri his Premier League debut at the Brentford Community Stadium that he had a “gut feeling” about the kid, who has quickly climbed through the ranks at youth level.
“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,” Arteta said at his post-game press conference.
“I met him, he’s trained a couple of times with us. Yesterday he had to come because we have injuries, especially the injury of Martin (Odegaard), and then I had that feeling from yesterday that if the opportunity could come that I was going to do it and I just done it.
“I told him yesterday that he was going to be with us and that I want him to experience how it is to be in the hotel, to do a preparation of the game to be around the boys and that he had to be ready.
“If you’re going to be on that bench you have to be ready. The boy just looks in your eyes and he’s ready. I don’t know what it is for him. When I met him, when I look at him, I had that feeling.”
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