Mikel Arteta has hinted he is prepared to thrust Ethan Nwaneri into the heat of Sunday’s north London derby battle against Tottenham.
The teenager became the Premier League’s youngest ever player when he made his senior debut as a late substitute against Brentford nearly two years ago.
Nwaneri has continued his progression in Arsenal’s youth teams and earlier this year ended speculation over his future by signing a new long-term contract, despite Chelsea and Manchester City attempting to prise him from north London.
The 17-year-old impressed during Arsenal’s pre-season tour of America in the summer and is set to become a fully fledged part of Arteta’s first team squad.
Injuries to Martin Odegaard and Mikel Merino, allied to Declan Rice’s suspension, mean the Arsenal boss is without three key midfielders for Sunday’s showdown but he suggested he would have little hesitation offering a chance to Nwaneri.
‘We have to adapt to [changes in the team], throughout the season we’re going to have these kind of situations,’ when asked if Nwaneri was likely to feature.
‘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.’
Arsenal let the likes of Emile Smith Rowe and Fabio Vieira, two natural replacements for Odegaard, go in the summer but Arteta insists he has no regrets and is content with the size of squad he has to choose from.
‘It can be bigger, yes, but we have certain limitations that we know about,’ he said. ‘We have to do certain things, certain transactions and certain players have been with us for a long time and they needed a new challenge in their career.
‘We have signed a few players, it’s been a bit different to the previous years, but I’m really happy with the quality of the squad. There are certain things that we cannot control and what happened in the last two weeks is extremely unlucky.
‘We have to face it, but hopefully during the season it will be very different.’
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