Analysis: Arsenal's Nwaneri a superstar in the making

Ethan Nwaneri's stellar performance against Leicester City was his latest excellent showing since breaking into the Arsenal first team. Football writer Adrian Clarke analyses the teenage talent and why he can be a superstar.

Player analysis: Ethan Nwaneri (Arsenal)

He is only a 17 years old, but Nwaneri is a precocious talent who is keeping injury-hit Arsenal’s title hopes well and truly alive.

Filling in for the injured Bukayo Saka on the right wing – a position that would not be considered his favourite – the gifted teenager looks every inch a superstar in the making.

Man of the match by some distance against Leicester City, he hit the woodwork twice and produced a sublime assist for Mikel Merino's opening goal.

Against the Foxes, he also became the youngest player on record (since 2003/04) to complete five or more dribbles and assist a goal in a Premier League match.

Fittingly that milestone had belonged to Saka, who was 18 years and 164 days old when achieving the same feat against Newcastle United in 2020.

After the match Mikel Arteta singled Nwaneri out for praise, saying, “Every time he was on the ball he made things happen. He had another level of threat than the rest of the team.”

Nwaneri's stats v Leicester

Scoring against Nottingham Forest, Brighton & Hove Albion and Manchester City in the league, Nwaneri has netted seven goals in 24 first-team appearances in all competitions this season.

During a period where Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus have all been sidelined through injury, Arsenal are now relying on Nwaneri to deliver big performances.

A rapid rise

Signed by Arsenal’s academy at the age of eight, Nwaneri developed so quickly at Hale End that he made a goalscoring debut for the Under 18s as a 14-year-old.

He also featured regularly for England Under-16s at the same age, playing two years up.

Fast-tracked into the first-team environment by Arteta, the attacking midfielder then became the youngest ever Premier League player in September 2022.

Aged just 15 years and 181 days he came on as a late substitute in Arsenal’s 3-0 win at Brentford.

If he scores three more times before his 18th birthday on 21 March, Nwaneri will beat a record shared by Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen, who both scored nine first-team goals before turning 18.

Considering Nwaneri is not a striker, it is so impressive that he is even in contention to achieve that.

It has taken next to no time for Nwaneri to adjust to top-flight football. He looks after possession extremely well, boasting a 90.34 per cent pass accuracy – the best of all the attacking players in Arteta’s squad.

Yet he is far from safety-first in his approach. For instance, no one else at Arsenal can match his dribbles completed, shots on target or goals per 90 minutes record so far in 2024/25.

When it comes to direct goal involvements, the brilliant Saka is the only team-mate to provide those moments at a faster rate than Nwaneri.

Arsenal's attacking players per 90 24/25

This is no rookie who is bedding himself into Premier League football gently.

Nwaneri is serving up the kind of performance levels you would associate with seasoned internationals.

What are Nwaneri’s main strengths?

Nwaneri is wonderful to watch with the ball at his feet.

Capable of carrying it past defenders on the inside or outside, he is well balanced and technically impressive.

Only two Premier League stars, Jeremy Doku and Abdul Fatawu average more successful dribbles per 90 minutes.

Completing two thirds of those dribbles (66.7 per cent), he is also ranked 5th for success rate in this department, among those who have made at least 15.

Where Nwaneri ranks 24/25

*Minimum four PL starts

Nwaneri also has a magical left foot that is understandably drawing comparisons with Saka.

Cutting in from the right before curling superb shots into the far corner against Bolton Wanderers, Brighton, Girona and Man City, he is dynamite in and around the corner of the box, just like his illustrious team-mate.

This shot map for the campaign highlights how effective he is from the right side of the opposition box and how willing he is to cut in and shoot from distance.

While it is early days, and this is his first proper run in Arteta’s side, Nwaneri is outperforming his Expected Goals (xG) metric by quite some margin.

A scorer of good goals, his xG per shot is just 0.057.

Nwaneri's 0.18 xG per 90 minutes is also very low compared to those who are leading the way for the most goals per game.

Nwaneri xG compared 24/25

*Minimum three goals

How does he compare with Saka?

It is important to consider than Nwaneri’s best position is as a central attacking midfielder, rather than as a right-sided forward.

That is the role he excels in most, but it is currently occupied by captain Martin Odegaard.

This explains why Nwaneri gets on to the ball more often in deeper areas, and in more central positions than Saka does when effectively performing the same job out wide.

Acting as cover for Saka on the right in his last five Premier League appearances, these heat maps paint a picture of how they slightly differ.

Saka and Nwaneri heat maps compared 

A lot of the stats tell us Nwaneri is currently performing better at certain aspects of the game than Saka, such as dribbling, passing and scoring goals.

It is the creativity and penalty box threat that Saka brings which Nwaneri is yet to match – but in time, this is likely to improve.

Saka and Nwaneri compared (per 90) 24/25

Where does he fit in when Saka returns?

As one of the best right-wingers in world football, I would fully expect Saka to be used in his favoured position when he regains full fitness.

So, where will that leave Nwaneri? If he starts, the alternatives would be as box-to-box midfielder, maybe shifting Odegaard across to the left, and dropping Declan Rice into the defensive midfield spot (below).

Given how comfortable Nwaneri is at beating markers on both sides, using both feet, Arteta may also consider him as an option to use on the left wing instead (below).

Nwaneri may have to accept a return to being used an impact sub when Saka is back in the starting XI.

However, given his form and rapid progress it does currently feel unthinkable for Arteta to leave him out.

Nwaneri is the man West Ham United will fear most this Saturday.

ARS

15:00

WHU

close

TV Info - Broadcasters