Arsenal graduate Ethan Nwaneri made a perfect start to his Marseille career against Lens yesterday.
The 18-year-old signed for the Ligue 1 outfit on a short-term loan earlier this week.
He was drafted straight into the starting XI for his debut in the right number 10 role last night.
Nwaneri made an instant impact, scoring a sublime solo goal in the 13th minute.
The teenager got hold of possession in the centre circle and made a superb run before slotting a curling effort from the edge of the box to beat goalkeeper Robin Risser.
Overall, the Gunners youth sensation had two shots on target. He completed 100 percent of his dribbles (3/3) and also won four duels and made a couple of recoveries for Les Phoceens.
Nwaneri was brilliant with the ball at his feet too. The youngster completed 89 percent of his passes from 41 touches before he was replaced by Mason Greenwood before the hour mark.
It was a fabulous debut for the 18-year-old, who had just one training session before facing Lens.
Shortly after yesterday’s game, Nwaneri posted some pictures on Instagram. A number of Arsenal players responded to the Englishman’s post, including Declan Rice and Max Dowman.
Rice commented ‘special bro’, while Dowman simply said ‘joke’.
Here are screenshots
Manager Mikel Arteta was insistent on sending Nwaneri to Marseille. Manager Roberto De Zerbi has a good track record of developing young talents and tends to bring the best out of them.
Nwaneri is in a good space at the French heavyweights. He will get more opportunities to play as an attacking midfielder as De Zerbi prefers to deploy a 3-4-2-1 formation and rarely changes.
William Saliba became a mainstay in Arsenal’s XI after a stellar loan spell at Marseille. Arsenal fans will be hoping that Nwaneri can unleash his true potential at Les Phoceens before his return next term.
Stats from Sofascore.com