Mikel Arteta Open to Using Ethan Nwaneri for North London Derby
Mikel Arteta faced a barrage of questions in his pre-Tottenham press conference and he touched on his contract extension and the latest information regarding the injury status of some of his key players.
While his response on Martin Odegaard and Riccardo Calafiori were not encouraging, he had better news on Gabriel Jesus and he may be odds on to start tomorrow, if he’s fully fit.
When Arteta was asked about the possibility of using Ethan Nwaneri
“We have to adapt to [changes in the team], throughout the season we’re going to have these kind of situations. It happened very early, since the second game because when you look at the bench that we had against Brighton, it’s very different to the one that we probably would have expected. It’s the situation that we have, we have to face it, use the opportunities – the young kids have given us a lot of hope and right reasons as well to count on them, and we need to do it for sure.”
Nwaneri is a left-footer like Odegaard and can certainly feature in that position but one must wonder if this occasion is too big for him. I remember how Arsene Wenger threw Jack Wilshere into the deep end at 16 years of age, and we saw the end result – an accomplished youngster that had the world at his feet, before injuries stymied his progress.
Nwaneri, on the other hand, is 17-years-old and has a bright future ahead of him, and with the likes of Declan Rice suspended, Emile Smith Rowe, Albert Sambi Lokonga and Fabio Vieira out of the club, as well as Martin Odegaard and Mikel Merino injured, Arsenal is very short of options in central midfield, and Nwaneri can stake a claim.
We will see whether he would play any part in the Derby tomorrow.
