By the time Ethan Nwaneri whipped in Arsenal’s fifth, the mood at the Emirates was euphoric. The 17-year-old’s finish, arced into the bottom corner from that inside-right position through which so many of Arsenal’s attacks had come, felt like the perfect finale to a dominant 5-1 win over reigning Premier League champions Manchester City. And it was, in more ways than one.
Its youthful chutzpah seemed an appropriate way to round off a win in which 18-year-old Myles Lewis-Skelly had been the most eye-catching player, having scored the third goal with an impudent shimmy into the box. Yet there was a strange realisation on seeing the replay. Nwaneri’s finish hadn’t nestled in that close to the corner of the goal; it wasn’t quite as good as it had initially appeared. And that felt emblematic of the game as a whole.
