Arteta was impressed by one of his menplaceholder image
Arteta was impressed by one of his men | Arsenal FC via Getty Images
Arsenal progressed to the quarter-final of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night by defeating Brighton.
Mikel Arteta’s men had to work hard for the win, as is the norm against Brighton, but they got their breakthrough in the 57th minute when Ethan Nwaneri opened the scoring, taking advantage of a starting opportunity, and Bukayo Saka came off the bench to finish off the win in the 76th minute.
Nwaneri became a key player last season, but amid increased competition at the Emirates Stadium, the young winger has had to settle for just four substitute appearances in the Premier League, yet to start.
But at 18 years of age, he is still in a good spot, and with perhaps more finished products currently ahead of him, all Nwaneri can do is take advantage of his opportunities as he did on Wednesday night.
“Really good,” Arteta said of the youngster after the game. “He came on the other day as well and he's going to have those chances and when he has, he needs to make the most out of it. I think he took the goal really, really well.
“He had some actions, some of them, they weren't that effective. But what I liked is that he kept trying and making risks and he didn't change that behaviour and determination to make things happen and at the end, he got rewarded with a brilliant goal.”
Arteta was also asked whether he gave Nwaneri any special advice before the game.“No, to all of them, that we have to be very aggressive when we have the chance,” said the Spaniard. “They were going man to man as well. They were very aggressive in our first phase. Once we unlocked that, we had a lot of spaces and we certainly exploit that much better in the second half.”
A ‘special’ win
Speaking about the game more generally, Arteta said: “A very special evening, to be fair, very happy for various reasons. Obviously, we are in the quarter-finals, we won the game against a really tough opponent.
“We made 10 changes, we played players that never played together, yet we had two huge debuts for Max [Dowman and Andre [Harriman-Annous]. That feeling of giving the opportunity to somebody and fulfilling a dream is unique. I'm very happy that things turned out to be very positive and we managed to win the game.”
Continue Reading