Mikel Arteta has had plenty of selection headaches this season, but working out how to fit Ethan Nwaneri and Martin Odegaard into the same team is one he may welcome.
Despite being only 17, Nwaneri has broken into the Arsenal first-team squad this season and impressed by scoring four goals.
Three of those goals have come in the Carabao Cup and he should get another chance to shine tonight when Arsenal host Crystal Palace in the quarter-finals.
Nwaneri is likely to come into the side for Odegaard and the teenager has essentially become the Arsenal captain’s understudy.
On Saturday, when the Gunners were chasing an elusive winner against Everton, it was Nwaneri who came on for Odegaard on the right side of Arsenal’s midfield trio.
The pair have similarities, with both of them left-footed and excellent in tight spaces. Nwaneri, like Odegaard, has broken into the first team at a young age and found himself in the spotlight.
Ethan Nwaneri
It’s why Odegaard, who signed for Real Madrid when he was 16, is helping Nwaneri by mentoring him.
“I have been trying to help him in many different ways,” Odegaard said. “I think for a young player, sometimes it is just to help him to be himself and feel natural, and don’t be like too much on him.
“Obviously it was a big change for me to go to Madrid at 16 years old and I was still a baby when I look back now. I think I just learned what it feels to be a young player in a senior squad and it’s not always the most easy thing.”
Arteta has carefully blooded Nwaneri, only starting him in Carabao Cup games and bringing him on in the same right No8 position whenever he comes off the bench in the Champions League or Premier League.
Given Nwaneri’s rapid rise, there will come a point, though, when Arteta is forced to find a way to get him and Odegaard in the same team.
It is an exciting prospect and one that Arteta may have to consider sooner rather than later given Arsenal’s attack has misfired at points this season.
As the heartbeat of the team, Arteta will not move Odegaard and so the onus is on Nwaneri to show he can play elsewhere.
For Arsenal’s youth sides he played out on the right wing occasionally, while he was a No9 during the Under-18s’ run to the FA Youth Cup final in the 2022-23 season.
“Ethan can play as a right attacking midfielder, a left attacking midfielder,” said Arteta. “He can play as a right winger and there is another position I think he can develop into - No9.
“He has got the goal in front of him and he looks at the goal and he has a tremendous ability to put the ball in the back of the net.”
The idea of Nwaneri playing as a No9 is an intriguing one, not least because Arsenal’s other strikers have struggled.
Gabriel Jesus, who will hope to start tonight, has scored just once in his last 33 games and that goal came against Preston in the last round of the Carabao Cup.
The Brazilian has looked desperately short of confidence and in need of a moment that can spark his season into life.
“He does everything in the best possible way - his application, his energy, how he tries, how he wants it,” said Arteta. “He needs to be rewarded and hopefully he is going to get it soon.”
In the immediate future, Arteta is reluctant to use Nwaneri as a No9 as he believes midfield is his best position right now.
But if his star continues to rise, and so do Arsenal’s attacking woes, it is easy to see how things could change very quickly.
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