Arteta lavishes praise on Ethan Nwaneri as Arsenal conquer Brentford
BRENTFORD, ENGLAND - JANUARY 01: Gabriel Jesus of Arsenal scores his team's first goal past Mark Flekken of Brentford (not pictured) during the Premier League match between Brentford FC and Arsenal FC at the Brentford Community Stadium on January 01, 2025 in Brentford, England. (Photo by David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
Arsenal began 2025 with a commanding display, overcoming Brentford 3-1 to hand the Bees just their second home defeat of the season.
Mikel Arteta hailed the result as a perfect start to the New Year, praising his team’s resilience and determination.
Falling behind to Bryan Mbeumo’s early strike, Arsenal faced a formidable test at the Gtech Community Stadium. Arteta acknowledged the difficulty of the fixture, saying, “It’s a really tough place to come for the first game of the year, and especially when you go a goal down.”
Despite the setback, Arsenal roared back with goals from Gabriel Jesus, Mikel Merino, and Gabriel Martinelli. Arteta commended the team’s mentality: “We showed a lot of composure, a lot of desire, and a lot of attitude to turn the result around. We took the initiative, and I think we deserved to win the game.”
The manager made four changes to the starting lineup due to injuries and illness, including handing 17-year-old Ethan Nwaneri his first league start. Nwaneri, who debuted as Arsenal’s youngest-ever player at the same venue three seasons ago, impressed with his maturity and contribution.
With the victory, Arsenal extended their unbeaten run to 11 matches and made it four consecutive wins. The team’s robust form underlines their ambitions in the Premier League title race as they close the gap on leaders Liverpool.
Arteta added, “The game became very difficult from yesterday because, again, we lost some players and had certain issues around the camp. We had to deal with that, we made some changes, Ethan [Nwaneri] making his Premier League debut, anyone that you put there, [they had the] right attitude, right level of performance and that sustains the level of the team.
“Ethan’s played here before, so that’s a nice story, to get back to this one, I think he was really composed, really determined, taking risks, taking initiative. Very impressive.”
The game marked the halfway stage of the Premier League season, so how does the boss sum up the campaign so far, with 19 of our 38 fixtures played?
“Yes it’s good, we’ve been through a lot and the team had to deal with a lot of circumstances, probably that we never expected and they’re still performing at the highest level, very consistently. We want to be better, we could’ve been better, especially just with small margins but I think the team is in the right path.”
