What Arsenal star Ethan Nwaneri did straight after scoring speaks volumes for Mikel Arteta
Ethan Nwaneri gives off the sense that he thinks - or perhaps more likely knows - he is too good for the level of football no matter what standard he is playing at. Whether that is for the Arsenal Under-21s, England Under-19s, against League One opposition, Championship players, or a team third in the Premier League earlier this month, it doesn't bother him.
To this extent, everyone had best get used to see Nwaneri raise his index finger in celebration. It is hardly yet a trademark but is a constant after he puts the ball in the net. Understated but authoritative, Nwaneri looks like a player who already just feels that is going to do this a lot.
If his last two months or so are anything to go by, he's right. Since starting against Bolton in the Carabao Cup he now has four goals for Arsenal, all showing different strands of brilliance. Here, against Nottingham Forest, he sensed an opportunity.
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Every appearance for him is a cameo. There is always a moment, and with Nuno Espirito Santo's side positively disappointed and eager to leave a soaking wet north London having hardly laid a glove on Arsenal, Nwaneri had several.
He only came on with 20 minutes left but took just seconds to get things flowing. Running into what is going to become known as that space for Nwaneri, the alleys of the right half-space which stretch horizontally across the pitch, he jinked past two players, cut on to his left foot and curled an effort narrowly wide.
It was the impact and movement of a player who could smell the opportunity to score his first Premier League goal. A similar piece of skill got things going late on in the win over Leicester City earlier this season.
This time, once more driving into that space where no Forest players are but really should be - they aren't the only people unable to track or stop Nwaneri - he played into Raheem Sterling, streaking forward to keep pace with the attack but never making himself a target for defenders, things opened up just a bit more. Sterling cut the ball back and seconds later the finger was up.
For a 17-year-old who just scored in the best league in the world for the first time, his reaction was, as mentioned, one of someone who can already envision this becoming a regular occurrence. There was no huge leap into the air. There was no scream of joy into the cold night sky.
In fact, if anything, the way he slipped towards Sterling, that finger pointing in his direction, it looked like he'd done this many, many times before. That in itself, not just the skill, timing, and promise of the goal, is just as refreshing as anything on show.
It says a lot for a player of this age, although it's hard to view this 17-year-old as just a 17-year-old given his debut came just 11 days after Chelsea sacked Thomas Tuchel, to be this calm, this composed, and this in tune with elite level sport. That's Nwaneri, though, and it's not likely to change - he's just ready for this and he knows it.