Arsenal feared losing Ethan Nwaneri to Chelsea – now he has eyes on Owen and Rooney records

Ethan Nwaneri celebrates scoring away to PSV — Ethan Nwaneri has become one of the brightest young attacking talents in the Premier League - Getty Images/Geert van Erven

This time two years ago, all seemed well at Arsenal. Mikel Arteta’s team were the best in the land, five points clear at the top of the table and in the midst of a seven-match winning run in the Premier League.

Behind the scenes in north London, though, there was a growing concern that one of the club’s most exciting young talents might be slipping out of their grasp. Ethan Nwaneri was approaching the end of his registration, and there was genuine fear at Arsenal that they would not be able to keep him.

Nwaneri’s ability was no secret – by then, he had already become the Premier League’s youngest ever player, at the age of just 15 years and 181 days – and rival clubs were extremely keen to lure him away from the Emirates Stadium. In youth academy circles, there was an expectation that the offers from elsewhere would ultimately prove impossible for Nwaneri to resist.

Among the academies pushing to sign Nwaneri, Telegraph Sport understands, were Manchester City and Chelsea. Those two clubs are known within youth football for being among the highest payers for young talents, and it is understood that Nwaneri was the subject of lucrative offers as he weighed up his options in the spring of 2023.

Had he and his family chosen to move to Chelsea, Nwaneri might have been lining up against Arsenal this weekend for Enzo Maresca’s side. The mere thought of it is enough to send shivers down the spines of Arsenal’s supporters, who have taken so much delight in the teenager’s emergence as a first-team star this season.

Arteta himself is understood to have played a major role in keeping Nwaneri at Arsenal, along with academy manager Per Mertesacker. Arteta has since admitted that his decision to play Nwaneri at Brentford, as a 15-year-old, was in large part to demonstrate that he would have a pathway to first-team action at Arsenal. “It was a really important moment for us, because we really wanted to keep him,” Arteta has said.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta talks to Ethan Nwaneri during a match at Manchester United — Mikel Arteta has been determined to keep Nwaneri at Arsenal - Reuters/Phil Noble

Only Nwaneri can say just how close he came to accepting an offer from elsewhere. In hindsight, it feels like the anxiety within Arsenal might have been overblown. After all, Nwaneri had grown up as an Arsenal fan, in a family of Arsenal fans, near the Emirates in Islington. He describes himself as “Arsenal at heart”.

Chelsea, though, actually did have Nwaneri in the building during his early days. Before formally joining Arsenal at the age of eight, Nwaneri had started his academy life at Chelsea (along with Arsenal team-mate Myles Lewis-Skelly). Chelsea are hardly short of exciting youngsters but how their academy staff must still wish he and Lewis-Skelly had chosen Cobham, rather than Hale End, in those formative years of their development.

Ethan Nwaneri celebrates with Myles Lewis Skelly during the Champions League match against PSV on March 4, 2025 — Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly have come through the academy into the first team together at Arsenal - Getty Images/Geert van Erven

Sunday’s meeting with Chelsea will be Nwaneri’s last club match before he turns 18 next week. It therefore represents something of a cut-off moment for the teenager – not least because it will be the last time he has to change separately from the first team. Due to safeguarding rules, players under 18 are not allowed into the senior dressing room at the training ground or matches.

Nwaneri’s 18th birthday provides a timely moment for his achievements to be measured against some of the finest talents of the modern era. Some of the statistics are thrilling: at Premier League clubs, only Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney have scored more goals in all competitions before the age of 18 (nine, compared to Nwaneri’s eight so far).

In the Premier League, Nwaneri’s rate of scoring is actually higher than that of Owen and Rooney. The Arsenal player is currently averaging a goal every 201 minutes, better than Owen (278 minutes) and Rooney (291 minutes) at the same age.

Of those two great talents of England’s past, Nwaneri feels much closer to Rooney in terms of physique and power. The teenaged Owen looked for all the world like a baby-faced schoolboy, while Nwaneri already possesses a muscular, stocky physique. He is no Rooney in terms of sheer strength and aggression, but Nwaneri is certainly sturdy enough to handle the demands of the Premier League.

Assuming he plays against Chelsea on Sunday, Nwaneri will have made 21 Premier League appearances before the age of 18. Only five players in Premier League history made more at that age: Rooney, Cesc Fàbregas, James Milner, Gareth Barry and Luke Shaw. Of those five, only Fàbregas did so for a Champions League club.

How much will Nwaneri’s life change as an adult? He now has the freedom, after all, to sample London’s nightlife and the various activities that could be on offer to a young footballer. The suggestion that he might soon be pictured stumbling out of nightclubs, however, is laughed off by those who know him at Arsenal. Nwaneri, it seems, is really not that type.

Sources describe him as hyper-focused and reserved, but not shy. He is not a loud character – of the two, Lewis-Skelly is more boisterous – but his quietness should not be mistaken for sheepishness. It is more of a quiet drive and determination, coupled with calm self-assurance. His actions on the pitch do the talking.

Ethan Nwaneri of Arsenal signs his first professional contract with Jack Wilshere and Per Mertesacker — Nwaneri celebrates signing his first professional contract, with Jack Wilshere and Per Mertesacker, in March 2024

Nwaneri’s age means he has been kept away from the usual media demands of Arsenal players, although that might soon change once he has turned 18. Everyone in the media world wants to hear from the teen sensation who has been compared to Lionel Messi by Joe Cole, another former wonderkid of the English game.

There is little fear within Arsenal that any of this attention will derail Nwaneri. Indeed, in all his years at the club, there has been nothing to suggest he will stop pushing to improve. Adam Birchall, Arsenal’s under-18 coach who worked with Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly for six years in the academy, says the two players share the same trait: relentlessness.

Naturally, Nwaneri’s progress will not be entirely smooth. He was exceptional against PSV last week, for example, but then struggled against Manchester United a few days later. Such inconsistencies are to be expected of a player of his age. What is certain, though, is that Arsenal have a special talent in their squad – and that they are enormously relieved to have kept him away from the clutches of their rivals.

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