Arsenal: Arteta reveals strange reason for Nwaneri start as Keown details ‘nightmare behind the scenes’

January 2, 2025
4:14 am

Mikel Arteta revealed a strange reason along with the obvious one for handing Ethan Nwaneri his full Premier League debut against Brentford.

17-year-old Nwaneri impressed along with his teammates as the Gunners ran out comfortable 3-1 winners over the Bees at the Gtech on Wednesday.

Bryan Mbeumo gave the hosts the lead against the run of play early on, but Gabriel Jesus scored again to level the scores before two quick fire goals from Mikel Merino and Gabriel Martinelli ensured victory for Arteta’s side.

Arsenal legend Martin Keown spoke ahead of the game about the importance of his former side finding a creative spark having dealt with a “nightmare behind the scenes” so far this season.

“It has been a tricky start to this season with ill-discipline, injuries, Odegaard was a big one and now Saka,” Keown said ahead of Arsenal’s match with Brentford. “It has been a nightmare behind the scenes.

“Arteta is trying to make the best of it and there is still time to recover. It has been a difficult journey for Arsenal this season. They haven’t had that consistency. They need to be more creative.

“Their stats from last season are almost the same as this season, just four points fewer, same goals conceded, a goal less scored. They’re on course but they’ve got to be better than they are to be champions. That’s the task ahead.”

Keown added: “I was disappointed Chelsea fell away in the last two games. A three-horse race makes it better. But the quality of [Luis] Diaz, [Cody] Gakpo up top, Arsenal need to find a little bit more up top. If Arsenal’s front three can score more goals… they really need to turn up and the pressure is on them tonight.”

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Speaking after the win over Bees Keown suggested his old side remain in the race for the Premier League title.

“Arsenal picked up the intensity, that is a strong signal from the team,” he said at full time. “They are alive and kicking, still alive in this title race. In the second half, they showed their class. It was really important for them to win tonight and get the job done.”

Keown was also full of praise for Nwaneri, who made his first Premier League start for the club on the right in place of the injured Saka, and Arteta confirmed after the game that he was picked because he was the best option, though also had another weirder and superstitious reason for selecting him.

The Spaniard said: “It was a decision that I made because I thought he was the best player to play in the position to start the game and because there was a story there, with his debut here and when he made his Premier League debut [against Brentford in September 2022] and sometimes, that feeling comes in and it’s the right one and then who knows?”

Mikel Arteta went on to explain why he took time to integrate Nwaneri into the team.

“A part of that development, it’s patience. It’s managing frustration and managing expectation because you expect that everything is going to go so fast as previous things happen and it’s not the case.”

“So now we’re building him and he’s played already a lot of games, a lot of minutes for us for the age he is and he fully deserves that.”