Arsenal took advantage of title rivals Manchester City’s FA Cup exploits at the weekend when they narrowly defeated Newcastle United to move three points clear at the top of the Premier League.
And while snapping their three-year streak of finishing runners-up and ending a 22-year wait for the title remains Arsenal’s overwhelming priority this season, the hierarchy at the club will still have one eye on the future development of the squad.
The progression of the Gunners promising young players will be a key part of this strategy, with a host of academy graduates currently out on loan.
Ethan Nwaneri’s loan spell issues
Arsenal’s 19-year-old attacker Ethan Nwaneri is one of the club’s brightest prospects and became the Premier League’s youngest-ever player when he made his first-team debut as a 15-year-old in 2022.
He would enjoy a breakthrough season last year, when he made 37 appearances for Arteta’s side across all competitions, netting nine times in the process.
That saw the Islington-born prospect nominated for the PFA Young Player of the Year award and sign a new long-term contract with the club, but with the Gunners having a busy summer transfer window, he found game time harder to come by this season and was loaned out to French side Marseille in the January transfer window.
After a promising start, which included a debut goal under then-boss Roberto De Zerbi, the teenager has struggled for minutes under new coach Habib Beye.
Nwaneri failed to feature during Marseille’s 1-1 draw with Nice on Sunday and Beye has now issued a public warning to the Gunners loanee.
"He’s a quality player, but he has to give us way more in his day-to-day commitment,” Beye said when asked on L1+ why Nwaneri failed to feature. “Other players gave way more."
Nwaneri’s absence comes with the club having won just one of their past five games and with attacking options Hamed Traore, Igor Paixao, and Amine Gouiri all currently out injured.
"He is a big talent who needs to adapt to the intensity of Ligue 1," Beye said earlier this month, when asked if Nwaneri was an option to replace Mason Greenwood when the former Manchester United forward was also out. "He looks like the ideal replacement for Mason but we have several quality players to choose from. He must understand he's come to a very, very high-level club."
Nwaneri and Arsenal will be frustrated with how the youngster’s loan spell has panned out. De Zerbi’s exit has clearly had an impact here, but with Beye moving to publicly question the England Under-21 international’s attitude and only three matches left in the Ligue 1 season, it’s hard to see a way back.
Nwaneri - who is valued at €40million by Transfermarkt - will now be best served getting his head down and learning from this up-and-down loan spell which has seen him turn out 11 times for the French side when he returns to London in the summer.
