Ethan Nwaneri is naturally quiet. For the most part the Arsenal teenager likes to do his talking on the pitch.
So when Lee Carsley’s Under 21s were divided up for a finishing drill at St George’s Park last week, the stage was set for Nwaneri to show just why there have already been calls to fast-track him into Thomas Tuchel’s seniors.
Top corner. Bottom corner. Goal. Goal. Goal. Goal. The rest of those involved in the drill, which included Under 21s star James McAtee, were speechless.
‘He’s a class player and in training he’s been unbelievable,’ McAtee told Mail Sport in Lorient after Nwaneri got his first taste of 21s football from the bench.
‘I’m so impressed with him. I was doing finishing drills with him the other day and he was ridiculous, he wasn’t missing!
‘I was struggling to get them in and he just wasn’t missing, both feet as well. He’s a world-class player.’
Ethan Nwaneri marked his England Under 21s full debut with a goal against Portugal on Monday
The Arsenal star had only turned 18 years old on Friday and is close to signing a new deal
Not one team-mate wore a luck of surprise when he scored against Portugal – it was a finish he’d shown them hundreds of times at St George’s Park in the past week
Fast forward to Monday night when Nwaneri picked up the ball in a pocket of space 25 yards from goal, feinted to his right before cutting inside to make a mockery of Portugal’s defence as he picked out the bottom corner.
Not one team-mate wore a luck of surprise. It was a finish he’d shown them hundreds of times at St George’s Park in the past week. It was a finish that had consistently gone in, and has become his trademark.
Three times this season he has had the ball in the same pocket just outside the area for Arsenal, and the result has always been the same. Preston away in October, Girona away on his first Champions League start, Manchester City at home four days later to cap a 5-1 thrashing of the champions.
‘It’s a finish he’s got and Noni (Madueke) actually has the same finish,’ Carsley said after Nwaneri stood out on his full Under 21s debut on Monday night.
‘Everyone knows exactly what is going to happen but they just cannot stop it! He’s going to go, go, go… touch and finish.
‘But what we have to remember is he’s only 18. It’s just unbelievable and what an impression he’s made.’
A lot of the chatter at St George’s Park in the past seven days has been about whether Nwaneri can count himself hard done by to have not been picked by Tuchel for the seniors.
Arsenal team-mate and fellow teenager Myles Lewis-Skelly did, albeit in a full back position that has far less depth than the attacking ranks where Nwaneri plays.
Nwaneri already has a trademark goal – which he first showed off for Arsenal against Preston
He cuts inside on his left foot on the edge of the area and whips it into the far corner, doing so on his first Champions League start in Girona in January
He also came off the bench to curl another signature effort past Manchester City in February
But while external noise focused on a supposed snub, there was a degree of relief in Carsley and his staff that the player was getting the chance to develop in a spotlight less sharp and bright than that of the first team.
It is also easy to forget that while Theo Walcott was fast-tracked into England’s seniors as a 16-year-old at the 2006 World Cup, he did get to play 21 times with the Under 21s.
More recently Bukayo Saka played once for the Under 21s – a 6-0 win against Kosovo in the same right-wing position as Nwaneri played against Portugal – as an 18-year-old before he was elevated to the seniors. He never looked back.
There are obvious parallels for Nwaneri with both of those past and present Arsenal examples, not least growing up always playing above his age group.
Nwaneri made his Under 16s debut aged as a 14-year-old, was playing Under 17s a year later and Under 19s as a 17-year-old. The Under 21s bow came on his 18th birthday as a substitute in France on Friday.
It is the rush to accelerate young players that, while exciting, fills certain coaches around St George’s Park with a degree of dread.
‘When you do have so much talent, there is sometimes an urge to play them and do they sometimes fall short?’ Ashley Cole, Carsley’s assistant, explained.
‘These two (Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri) haven’t. But you’ve got to be careful with these young players. They are special and precious so you have to take your time sometimes.’
Myles Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri have both excelled this season and made their England cases
Nwaneri’s talent has been known to those tasked with navigating players through the FA’s player pathway since he was aged 12
Ipswich Town’s Omari Hutchinson (right) has acted as a valuable mentor, friend and confidant for Nwaneri during this camp
Nwaneri’s talent has been known to those tasked with navigating players through the FA’s player pathway since he was aged 12. Carsley, himself, has worked with him in younger age groups.
He captained England’s Under 19s twice earlier this season when just 17. A quiet leader but a confident one is how sources around England’s younger age groups have described him.
So much of his rise has been taken firmly in stride but that does not mean he has gone down the route off being a lone wolf. Quite the opposite. As well as having a cheerleader in McAtee, Ipswich Town’s Omari Hutchinson has acted as a valuable mentor, friend and confidant for Nwaneri during this camp.
Hutchinson spent seven years at Hale End in Arsenal’s academy before leaving for Chelsea in 2022, and has been close to Nwaneri due to the friendship between the players’ dads.
Obi, Nwaneri’s dad, has been a major influence on his son’s career while Leon Hutchinson has provided similar impact on Omari’s rise. Both men were in attendance at the Hawthorns on Monday night to see their sons leading England’s attack.
Hutchinson was determined to make Nwaneri feel part of Carsley’s newly assembled dressing room during this camp. Even more than that, Hutchinson wanted Nwaneri to embrace the moment and to feel like the main man he is fast becoming.
‘The main thing was keeping him in the group and not being shy,’ he said. ‘I’ve tried to look after him and advise him but he’s so mature.
‘I just told him “you’re that guy, just keep working”.’
A quiet leader but a confident one is how sources around England’s younger age groups have described him
The big question mark around Nwaneri in recent days has not been whether he will feature at the Under 21 Euros this summer, but his long-term future is with the senior squad
His late cameo in a 5-3 defeat was not how he’d have envisaged his first taste of Under 21s football, or his 18th birthday, panning out
Turning 18 years old is a landmark moment for many young men but Nwaneri was never likely to make much of a fuss.
England were in game mode on the day up against a star-studded France side and his late cameo in a 5-3 defeat was not how he’d have envisaged his first taste of Under 21s football, or his 18th birthday, panning out.
But there was a dressing room full of players eager not to let his birthday pass him by as cupcakes were arranged for the late-night flight back to the UK. Some balloons were also in order.
Birthdays have always proven a lucky omen for Nwaneri. He scored twice against Denmark Under 17s just one day after turning 16 back in 2023 and the day before his 17th birthday he scored in a 5-1 win over Northern Ireland Under 17s.
The big question mark around Nwaneri in recent days has not been whether he will feature at the Under 21 Euros this summer – conversations still need to be had with Arsenal, Carsley conceded – but what position is his long-term future is with the senior squad.
A No 10 in the mould of Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard is how some, such as Gunners’ academy manager Per Mertesacker, believe he will end up. Others see him as developing into an unstoppable winger reminiscent of Arjen Robben. That trademark finish is eerily similar to the Dutchman’s signature move.
The spot on the right wing has become his in recent weeks for Arsenal, in Saka’s absence. Jarrod Bowen started there for the seniors against Latvia while the Under 21s had McAtee out there while drifting inside against France.
What Nwaneri has that neither of the other options coming through on the FA pathway right now is the ambidexterity to be a major threat on his left or his right foot.
‘What he’s achieving now is definitely not a surprise to me,’ former Arsenal academy coach Alex Nicholls, who started working with Nwaneri during his Under 11s season, told Mail Sport.
Nwaneri is still the Premier League’s youngest ever player, at 15 years 181 days in 2022
Nwaneri’s two-footedness is what sets him apart from many of his rivals on the right flank
The 18-year-old has eight goals this season for Arsenal in 29 appearances
‘I can’t think of coaching a player in my career that has such a steely focus on becoming a professional footballer. Ethan’s level of focus has always been laser-like.
‘He is an obsessive trainer. He is obsessed with dominating every environment he can play in. In one-v-one situations we just tried to ensure he could always go both ways and not necessarily have perfect technical symmetry either.
‘We just wanted him to be effective and efficient on both sides and you’re starting to see that come to the fore now.
‘The way he has stepped in to fill Bukayo’s shoes while he’s been injured, it demonstrates his unpredictability.
‘You see so many times how he can dominate one-v-one where we know he can come inside the pitch, like we saw him do against Girona and Man City and bend it to the far post.
‘But then I’ve seen him against Newcastle and against Leicester be unpredictable and go on the outside and whip a dangerous cross in with his right foot.
‘That element of his technical capability is really shining through and it affords him more opportunities because he’s so versatile.’
Former England starlet Joe Cole felt bypassing the Under 21s entirely, just as Lewis-Skelly has done, was the formula for success for Nwaneri.
Bukayo Saka is a valuable mentor and friend for Nwaneri for both club and country
Nwaneri, Saka and Lewis-Skelly could all be part of the same England lineup before long
But after a camp where he dominated in training, got some valuable mentorship off Hutchinson, McAtee and more, and even got his hands on a cupcake or two, perhaps for now the Under 21s is the perfect tonic for Nwaneri in a season where so many people can’t push him to the top fast enough.
Next up for the seniors are two lower-pressure fixtures. A World Cup qualifier in Andorra – ranked 171st in the world and capable of being watched by only 3,300 people in their national stadium – and a friendly at home to Senegal in June.
It may well be the birth of Nwaneri’s top-level England career, though Saka will be back in the frame by then to add to the talent already available.
Tuchel is watching. But for now it is Carsley and Co that get to sit back and marvel at Arsenal’s unstoppable force.
