Ethan Nwaneri is seemingly in the Arsenal squad for their first game of the Premier League season against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Nwaneri, 17, has featured in all five of the club’s pre-season friendlies this summer, starting the first two against Bournemouth and Manchester United before featuring as a substitute versus Liverpool, Bayer Leverkusen and Lyon. The teenager replaced Kai Havertz in the latter and former, with Martin Odegaard making way in the other.
However, the biggest hint about his involvement in the first-team this season came on Friday night. Arsenal’s under-21s faced Man United in their first game of the Premier League 2 season.
The Gunners took a 4-0 lead in the first half, with Khayon Edwards scoring the first and fourth, with Michal Rosiak and Nathan Butler-Oyedeji also opening their accounts for the season. Ethans Ennis and Wheatley halved the deficit after the break, with those goals coming after another Ethan, Williams, was shown a straight red card.
But while Myles Lewis-Skelly started at left-back, Nwaneri was nowhere to be seen. It was a notable omission after the midfielder started all seven of their games of the regular season last team and their two matches in the playoffs.
Hours later on Saturday morning, footage emerged on social media showing the Arsenal players arriving at a hotel ahead of their season-opener. Among the usual faces arriving was Nwaneri. If the player makes the matchday squad, it will be the first time manager Mikel Arteta has selected the midfielder since the first leg of Arsenal’s Champions League quarter-final tie against Porto in Portugal.
Earlier in February, Nwaneri had made his only outing of the season as a late second-half substitute versus West Ham United. That Porto match was the sixth and final time he featured on the bench across all competitions last term.
