After an incredibly tough month of fixtures that saw Arsenal take on Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur, Atalanta and Manchester City, all away from home, the Gunners are now faced with what should be an altogether more straightforward task: a League Cup home tie against Bolton Wanderers.
Now, Mikel Arteta will undoubtedly approach the match with the same level of respect he does for every game, but due to the opposition’s level, he must use it as an opportunity to rest a number of his players who ran themselves into the ground on Sunday evening.
Fortunately, it looks like he will, as 16-year-old goalkeeper Jack Porter, who became the youngest keeper in Champions League history when he made the bench against Atalanta on Thursday, is set to start. The team should also include the sensational Ethan Nwaneri and another of the Gunners’ most promising youngsters, who made quite an entrance on Sunday.
Why Nwaneri should start
So, there are a couple of reasons why Arteta should look to hand Nwaneri his first competitive start for Arsenal this evening, and the first is simply down to necessity.
Martin Odegaard is still out with the ankle injury he picked up on international duty, Leandro Trossard is suspended due to his second yellow card against City on the weekend, and the player who probably would have stepped in last season, Fabio Vieira, is currently on loan with previous club Porto.
Moreover, Kai Havertz will either start up top or, more likely, be rested, meaning the manager has only one option: hand the sensationally gifted 17-year-old his full debut for the club.
That said, the second reason is that, regardless of the squad situation, the Enfield-born gem would be deserving of a start purely off the back of his form for the youth sides, his cameo against Spurs and the displays he put in during preseason.
For example, the “true goalscorer”, as dubbed by analyst Ben Mattinson, has racked up a seriously impressive haul of 27 goals and ten assists in just 52 appearances for the club’s various youth sides, equating to an average of a goal involvement every 1.40 games, primarily from attacking midfield.
Moreover, when he came off the bench towards the end of the North London Derby, he looked utterly unfazed by the magnitude of the game and the intensity of the rivalry, which suggests that he’d be completely fine starting a home game against third-tier opposition, even alongside another Hale End graduate.
Why Myles Lewis-Skelly should start
Yes, while Arsenal are blessed with an abundance of talented youth players, as the fans saw during the preseason tour, the one who should be guaranteed a place in the starting lineup tonight is 17-year-old Myles Lewis-Skelly.
If the Islington-born gem is in the XI this evening, then it’ll come as no surprise to the fans that watched Sunday’s clash with City, as when Jurrien Timber went down with cramp in the 92nd minute, instead of moving Declan Rice into the backline and throwing on Jorginho for some more big game experience, he turned to the Hale End graduate and threw him into the deep end.
Moreover, the Spaniard did so despite the exciting prospect already picking up a yellow card on the sideline for giving instructions to David Raya and then getting into an argument with Erling Haaland, which just shows that even at his age, the “unbelievable” gem as dubbed by podcaster Will Balsam, isn’t phased by anything.
However, it’s not just his incredible mentality and willingness to throw himself into intense situations that warrant his inclusion from the start tonight; it’s also his technical ability and positional versatility.
For example, while he played in central and defensive midfield roles in the academy, driving forward with the ball with purpose (video below), Arteta has primarily used him as cover for left-back, which is likely where he will start tonight with both Timber and Riccardo Calafiori coming off on Sunday.
Ultimately, while it’s a big step-up for the pair of them, Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly should be handed their full Arsenal debut this evening alongside Porter, and if they can keep up the form they have shown in their cameos, the fans will be in for a treat.
