Ethan Nwaneri may have been waiting for the ball to arrive, but he had already played out the next three seconds in advance.
The 17-year-old was 25 yards from goal as Gabriel Jesus prepared to pass inside to him. He looked set to take his first touch back where it came from, towards the corner flag. Preston captain Ryan Ledson was a matter of yards away, readying himself to pounce as soon as Nwaneri took his first touch.
Until he wasn’t.
Nwaneri made a movement towards the ball but if one thing has become apparent in his cameos so far this season it is that he does not like doing the obvious.
As the ball was played from his right, Nwaneri squatted down into his knees, opened his body up and nudged the ball out from his feet onto his stronger left side, all in one motion.
With one violent torque of his hips, he spun from facing the Sir Tom Finney Stand to the Invincibles Pavilion in a matter of milliseconds.
Ledson scrambled and slid to close the gap but Nwaneri had done the calculations. The disguise and weight of his touch meant he had the precise inch required to take three steps and whipped the ball into the far left top corner before the defender could smother.
Most players that age would have been stunned by their own brilliance. Some would have gone berserk. A nonchalant finger wag as he sauntered to the corner flag was how Nwaneri celebrated. It was the reaction of a boy who expects this of himself.
“It is unbelievable but he does it in training almost every day so we’re getting used to it,” his manager, Mikel Arteta said in his post-match press conference. “He’s got this quality, this personality, he’s there to make things happen. He doesn’t care whose around him, if he needs to make the decision on his own he does it.
“He’s a big talent, he’s got the right attitude, he’s got the right players and context around him and we need to make sure that we go brick by brick. He’s going to really dictate how that’s gonna go, but I’m really, really happy with him.”
On a night in which goalkeeper Tommy Setford made his first start at 18, Ayden Heaven came on for his debut, and Jesus ended a nine-month goal drought, Nwaneri was the player whose name was lauded most often. “He’s one of our own” chanted the 5,600-strong away following as he became the youngest ever Arsenal player to net in their first two competitive starts — eclipsing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who did so as an 18-year-old in 2011.
His three goals against Bolton and Preston have come in the Carabao Cup against League One and Championship opposition but he played with such effortless class that the clamour for a first Premier League start is intensifying.
Given the absence of captain Martin Odegaard means Arsenal’s only like-for-like alternative to the Norwegian is Nwaneri, the question is: If not now, when?
Over the last two months Arteta has had to tweak the shape to incorporate Leandro Trossard and Kai Havertz as a partnership, or opt for a functional midfield three of Thomas Partey, Declan Rice and Mikel Merino.
It has stifled their creativity in some games, including in the 2-0 defeat to Bournemouth. Arsenal were down to ten men but their attacking play had been devoid of spontaneity and Nwaneri only being introduced in the 81st minute was seen by some as a sign that Arteta does not trust him enough to compete in the Premier League yet.
The fear for Nwaneri is that, if he is not given starts in any of the final four games before the international break, the potential return of Odegaard next month could see him put in cold storage again.
But on Wednesday Arteta said he believes he is ready to make his breakthrough.
“Certainly,” he said. “If not, he wouldn’t have played tonight and he wouldn’t have played three days ago against Liverpool. He’s there.
“He’s showing every day what he’s capable of. You see his teammates, they give the ball all the time. That’s a great sign. We’ve got some player there.”
The next ten days bring trips to Newcastle, Inter and Chelsea. Can Arteta realistically start him in any?
He may believe these tests are beyond what Nwaneri should be asked to compete against at such a tender age, but he has shown that he can change the midfield dynamic.
Against Leicester he was brought on to help salvage the game at 2-2 and his first action was to dribble past three players and fire a shot at goal.
Had Fabio Vieira not been loaned out to Porto, it could well have been the Portuguese midfielder playing instead of Nwaneri. The latter has shown in two starts why he has the personality to impose himself on the game that Vieira lacked.
It does need to be remembered that Nwaneri only turned 17 in March. Despite the perception that he has perhaps been introduced to the first-team too gradually, he has played more minutes than Bukayo Saka did the age of 18.
There is the consideration that Arteta is protecting the teenager by not demanding too much of him too soon. There are usually obvious weaknesses in a 17-year-old’s game to justify that protection but what does Nwaneri need protection from?
Overexposure is a valid concern but he is physically mature in the same way Saka was when he came into the first-team. His legs are huge, he has built an explosive frame to cope with the demands of the Premier League and he uses his body to shield the ball very intelligently.
Technically, physically and mentality he looks ready for a more prominent role and a more difficult challenge.
The example of 17-year-old Barcelona academy star Lamine Yamal who helped inspire Spain to Euro 2024 and scored in the Classico on Saturday shows what can be achieved when the brakes are eased en route to superstardom.
The change in Nwaneri’s body language on Wednesday after he scored was dramatic. In the next passage of play he dropped into the territory of Jorginho and Oleksandr Zinchenko, and decided he was gong to dictate play his own, more direct way.
He drove through a gap and shuffled past two players before threading a pass into Jesus. Preston won the ball back and broke, which Arteta throw his arms in the air, but this was Nwaneri’s confidence telling him that he should roam and demand the ball as the team’s creative spark.
Come the end of the game he was informing Saka on which corner routine to implement and, after a discussion with senior players, was awarded free-kick responsibility in which he played a perfect cross that was not converted.
Nwaneri nearly added another goal to his tally, clipping the bar late on after working half a yard to cut inside and curl the ball into the far corner.
It was another example of him identifying space and moving into it before anyone else can react. Now he hopes to do the same with Arsenal’s Premier League midfield.
(Top photo: Stuart MacFarlane/Getty Images)
