Nwaneri became the youngest player in Premier League history when he came on in the final moments of Arsenal’s 3-0 win at Brentford in September 2022, aged just 15 years and 181 days.
“School in the morning, tomorrow has school,” the traveling Arsenal fans sang then.
On Saturday, tens of thousands of fans inside Emirates Stadium chanted “he’s one of us, Ethan Nwaneri, he’s one of us” after scoring.
Fans have been calling for the teenager to be given more minutes after his promising performances in the EFL Cup, and his well-scored goal against Forest will only add to the clamor.
He has scored four goals in 238 minutes this season, 170 of those minutes in the EFL Cup, 60 in the Premier League and eight in the Champions League.
Across Europe’s top five leagues, Nwaneri is one of only two under-18 players to have scored more than once in all competitions this season, after 17-year-old Barcelona and Spanish talent Lamine Yamal.
Arteta explained why he was managing Nwaneri’s minutes “step by step” following the win over Forest.
“He’s giving us every reason to play, another reason to put him there,” the Arsenal manager said.
“I am responsible for building a career for him. It has to be done brick by brick. Today he laid another brick.
“Now we have to put cement, make sure it doesn’t dry out so we can put another one and make it stick. Then we put one more layer, one more layer.
“If they want to do five in a row, believe me, it won’t work. We have to manage not only their expectations but also their workload, which is really important.”
“You can feel how much the crowd loves watching this kid play and the energy.”
