Mikel Arteta hails Arsenal wonderkid as ‘next Jack Wilshere’ ahead of PSV Champions League clash

ARSENAL manager Mikel Arteta has praised academy wonderkid Ethan Nwaneri by comparing him to club hero Jack Wilshere.

Nwaneri, 16, has travelled with the Gunners to the Netherlands and is expected to take part in tonight’s Champions League dead rubber against PSV Eindhoven at the Philips Stadion.

Arteta is very impressed with the playmaker, who already left his mark in English football last year by becoming the youngest ever player to compete in the Premier League at 15 years and 181 days old.

In fact, the Spanish tactician is so dazzled by the England Under-17 international that he sees similarities to former team-mate Wilshere because of the way he handles the ball in tight areas.

And that is no coincidence as Nwaneri could make even more history in Eindhoven by also becoming the youngest Arsenal player to play in the Champions League at 16 years and 265 days, beating none other than Wilshere’s 2008 record by 64 days.

Arteta said: “There’s something unique that he’s got that I really liked from the beginning, his ability to take the ball in tight areas and to escape a little bit like Jack Wilshere used to do.

“The personality he has, he trains with us like he trains with the Under-18s or Under-16s and I love that in a player.

“He’s got that bit between his teeth as well that he wants to show every single day how good he is and to impress people.

“When you have someone like that, you have to give him hope and as well it was a really important moment for us.

“We really wanted to keep him and I think it was a strange sign for him that this is his place for him to develop. It is early days, but we need to get the machine going because we want more of those and we have to produce more of those.

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“There’s a lot of work going into the academy and that’s big credit to all of them every single day for the amount of work that they’re putting in. They do a lot, they’ve planted the seeds and now we need to bring them up.”

Nwaneri isn’t the only youngster expected to make his Champions League debut at Eindhoven.

The versatile forward has also been joined by fellow Arsenal academy talents Lino Sousa, 18, and Reuell Walters, 18.

Arteta added: “Three big prospects. We want to bring a lot of players from a system and they deserve to be here.

“They’re still really really young but we want to get them the experience because they have the talent hopefully to be very close to us. We’ll try to give them the opportunity if we can in the right moment.

“Obviously it gets harder and harder, so the talent has to be really good and and you have to find and build the space in the squad to give that talent an opportunity.

“We should not forget that because it’s a big part of what we want to do in the future. And especially when you have it, you cannot let it go. I think we have some good space and good talent to develop in the environment.

“I think on TV, it looks easier. If one day we give them a chance to train with the boys, they will probably realise that the level is really, really high.

“The competition is huge, because we can pick players from anywhere in the world and we have the ability to do that.”

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