Mikel Arteta has revealed that Ethan Nwaneri uses a different changing room to his teammates due to his age.
The 17-year-old came off the bench to net Arsenal’s fifth goal in their 5-1 demolition of Manchester City on Sunday.
It was the latest in a line of impressive moments from the winger who is enjoying a breakout season in the Gunners’ first team.
Nwaneri has now scored in back-to-back games having netted a superb effort in last week’s 2-1 Champions League win at Girona.
But his brush with the club’s first-team stars has been a muted one so far as he is not allowed to change in the same changing room as his teammates due to a strict safeguarding policy.
Premier League safeguarding rules state that players must be 18 or older to share a dressing room with the senior squad.
“Ethan cannot be in our dressing room still, which is unbelievable,” Arteta explained. “He needs to get dressed somewhere else, even on match day.”
Meanwhile, Arteta has pointed to Nwaneri’s long-standing friendship with Myles Lewis-Skelly as a catalyst for his recent success.
The pair have been close friends since breaking into the club’s academy.
