Premier League: Mikel Arteta explains why he let the youngest player in the Premier League, Ethan Nwaneri, play against Brentford

At the young age of just 16, he became the youngest player in Premier League history.

Nwaneri replaced Fabio Vieira in the 90th minute as Mikel Arteta's team coasted to a 3-0 victory at the Brentford Community Stadium. Arsenal regained the top spot in the league table thanks to goals from Vieira, William Saliba, and Gabriel Jesus. Vieira scored a magnificent goal in his debut for the club.

Nwaneri, at the ripe age of 15 years, 5 months, and 23 days, eclipsed the previous record holder, Harvey Elliott of Liverpool (16 years, and 30 days). By doing so, the midfielder surpassed Cesc Fabregas as Arsenal's youngest-ever senior player (16 years, 5 months and 24 days).

Before Nwaneri, Arsenal's youngest player to debut was Jack Wilshere, who is now a coach to the under-18 team. When Wilshere made his debut in 2018 when he had already lived for 16 years and 256 days.

The Gunners gained ground this week, and are still ahead of Manchester City and Tottenham by one point.

Since January, Arsenal has regularly started with multiple players under 21, but their boss has hesitated to use them.

Four players who spent much of last season on the bench—Charlie Patino, Mika Biereth, Salah Oulad M'Hand, and Omari Hutchinson, left on loan or permanently to the offseason to get more playing time elsewhere.

Mikel Arteta explains Ethan Nwaneri's inclusion in the Arsenal squad

Reporters asked Arteta after the game why he decided to include Nwaneri, a player who only debuted for the Under-18 team in May, on which he said, "It was a pure gut feeling. I met the boy (and) really liked what I saw."

"Per Mertesacker and the academy staff are giving me really good information, Edu as well. I met him, he's trained a couple of times with us. He had to come because we have injuries, especially the injury of Martin (Odegaard), and then I had that feeling that if the opportunity could come that I was going to do it."

Although Arteta's gut reaction was unusual, the absence of Odegaard, Emile Smith Rowe, Mohamed Elneny, Reiss Nelson, Oleksandr Zinchenko, and Cedric Soares likely had a role.

Although the schoolboy's presence in a team did surprise many on Sunday, it was not the first time this has happened this season. He debuted with the U-21s two weeks ago, playing the full 90 minutes of a 4-1 victory over Blackburn Rovers in which he played a pivotal role in the team's second goal.

In a tense moment, England’s U-17 international received the ball just outside the box and chipped it to Charles Sagoe Jr., who was making a move down the left side of the field and set up the game-winning goal for Nathan Butler-Oyedeji.

When he made his under-18 debut against Reading in April 2021, a month after turning 14 years, he piqued the imagination of fans with a goal like this.