Ethan Nwaneri Arsenal 2022.Getty Images.

Ethan Nwaneri: Nigeria prospect breaks Premier League record in Arsenal victory over Onyeka’s Brentford

Nigeria prospect Ethan Nwaneri has broken Premier League history by becoming the competition’s youngest debutant at the age of 15 years and 181 days.

The England U17 international – who is eligible to play for the Super Eagles through his parents - was involved as Arsenal defeated Brentford 3-0 on Sunday.

He came on in the second minute of stoppage time – for Fabio Vieira - and became the first player under 16 to play in the English top-tier. 

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As such, he became the youngest ever player to appear in a Premier League match. The previous-youngest had been Harvey Elliott, who played for Fulham against Wolves in 2019 at the age of 16 years and 30 days.

Nwaneri also surpassed Cesc Fabregas as Arsenal's youngest ever player. The Spaniard was 16 years, five months, and 24 days old when he made his debut.

Meanwhile, as Ghana midfielder Thomas Partey returned to the Gunners' starting XI, he registered a passing accuracy of 85.9% from the 85 passes made against Brentford.

The Black Stars midfielder made one clearance and one total tackle as he contributed to the defensive work for the team. He was fouled once and made one successful dribble against the home side.

As Nwaneri made history and Partey had a good display against the Bees, the Gunners also registered another record.

They have won more Premier League games than any other team so far this season (six). For the Gunners, it’s just the third time they have won as many as six of their first seven games of a Premier League campaign – previously doing so in 2004-05 and 2007-08 under Arsene Wenger.

Meanwhile, Nigeria international Frank Onyeka recorded a 100% passing accuracy as he managed 10 passes after coming on for Vitaly Janelt three minutes after the hour mark.

Defensively, Onyeka made one total tackle but committed three fouls. Offensively, the Super Eagles midfielder was not involved much as he recorded zero shots at goal. He also made no key passes and was fouled only once.

Although the African star impressed with the ball at his feet in the second-half minutes he featured in against the league leaders, Brentford ended up suffering consecutive league defeats against Arsenal for the first time ever.

Indeed, this is as many defeats as they had in their first 11 league meetings with the Gunners combined (W6 D3 L2).

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