11 February 2024 , 19:24
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Mikel Arteta has revealed his Arsenal players were delighted to see Ethan Nwaneri come off the bench against West Ham.
The academy product featured for the final 13 minutes of the Gunners' dominant 6-0 win over the Hammers on Sunday. Nwaneri came on in place of Gabriel Martinelli for the closing stages of the game, for what was his second senior appearance.
The attacker became the youngest player ever in the Premier League in 2021 when he made his debut against Brentford aged 15 years and 181 days. He has now been called upon again as Arteta looks to hand him more senior experience.
Nwaneri has been a regular feature on the Gunners' bench throughout the season. And Arteta revealed that his team-mates were pushing their boss to bring on the academy star at the London Stadium.
“There is something that you have to earn in your team and that is the trust of your team-mates. I had two things. One, the players on the bench whispering 'Bring Ethan in!', which is a great thing to hear," Arteta said.
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"The other thing is for your team-mates to give you the ball all the time. If they do that, it's because they really trust you and you only have to see how many times he was involved in that. So it’s a great sign."
Nwaneri finished with a pass success rate of 83 per cent, won two of his three defensive duels and had 20 touches in total. The midfielder would have been left inspired by a performance from another academy graduate in Bukayo Saka.
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Nwaneri impressed during his cameo against the Hammers (Jacques Feeney/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)Saka scored twice to inspire the Gunners to their dominant win, being named man of the match in the process. And his performance drew high praise from boss Arteta, who singled out the England international after the game.
"That at his age, in the position and consistency [he shows] – normally they don’t go in the same line – he’s proving everybody wrong and [showing] he can do it," Arteta said of his winger.
"What he has done today as well I had doubts that he was going to take the penalty or not because of what happened [last season], but it shows as well how mature he is and how determined he is as well to go to the next level.
"What I want as a team is for them to be better and better. The way they trained this week, they were totally focused after Liverpool to say: 'Okay, now it’s a big task and now it’s time to go another level and beat West Ham'. And they certainly did that today.
"It's true we are missing some big players for us, and some big starters, but at the end, players need possibilities and chances to judge them. And certainly, today we can judge them and say how good they are.
"We are maintaining and building some momentum now, and the performances have been really strong, as well as the results in recent weeks. We need to maintain that because the other teams are doing it as well, we are not the only ones, and we need to recognise that."
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