Arsenal 5-1 Bolton: The kids are all right

Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction – Video

After three difficult away games, and no shortage of incident and drama, it was nice to be home last night and fun to enjoy a comprehensive win over Bolton in the Carabao Cup.

As expected, Mikel Arteta made changes, with first starts for Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly, while there were full debuts for Josh Nichols at right back, and 16 year old goalkeeper Jack Porter. There is probably a good question to be asked about how we found ourselves in a situation like that, but let’s leave it for another day, because if you turn 16 in July and make your debut for this club just a couple of months later, you deserve your time in the spotlight.

There was plenty of experience ahead of the young keeper, and it was one of those who opened the scoring. Nichols provided a cross, the ball came to Declan Rice via a fresh-air kick from a Bolton defender, and the speed at which he took a touch, shifted the ball, and shot gave the visitor’s goalkeeper no chance at all.

There has been so much chat about Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly though, they are the two closest to the first team at this point, so it was lovely to see how the second goal came about. The left-back played an excellent pass inside the defence for the run of Raheem Sterling, he looked up, played a great ball across and Nwaneri was there to slide in and make it 2-0 with his first senior Arsenal goal. When Sterling provided his first ever career assist in this competition, last night’s goalscorer was 6 years of age.

Early in the second half, Nwaneri got his second. Bolton were sloppy at the back again, Rice intercepted, and the 17 year old took it on and finished through the keeper who will probably feel he should have done a bit better. What a night for him though. The goals will stand out, obviously, but he looked really good on the ball, and while I think the young players were probably told to keep it simple, you can see there are levels to his game that we’re going to unlock as time goes on.

Bolton got one back, a break from a corner (note to Arteta: don’t leave Jorginho as the only man back!), and Aaron Collins used his experience to go around Porter and slot home to make it 3-1. There’s no blame on the keeper for me, he was tempted by a touch which he’ll learn from, but it’s just a shame we couldn’t get him the clean sheet on his debut.

Bukayo Saka helped create the fourth, he gave that side of the Bolton defence the tremors all night long. A shot/cross went under the keeper, and it turned into one of the easiest goals of Sterling’s career. Nice for him to get on the scoresheet though, and I thought he had a lively game. Some of his movement is very interesting, different from other players we have available, and if we can get up to speed with that, it’s another potential angle to our attacking play.

Kai Havertz came off the bench and made it 5-1, but there was time – in true League Cup style – for some more Academy players. The wonderfully named Maldini Kacurri came on and my goodness he’s a big lad for just 18. He looked very comfortable at the back alongside Gabriel (who had come on because MLS picked up an unfortunate injury during the second half), and there was a run out too for young winger Ismeal Kabia. This is Coca-Cola Littlewoods Milk Capital One Rumbleows Carling Caraboa Cup ‘eritage.

The picture from the official site really told a nice story:

Young Gunners making us proud ❤️ pic.twitter.com/oWwfDpXfUZ

— Arsenal (@Arsenal) September 25, 2024

Beyond the feel-good stuff though, there is a serious element to this. Finding that balance between improving your squad via the transfer market while still proving a pathway to the best Academy talent is not easy – especially when demands and expectations have been heightened the the way they have over the last couple of years. But when you have this kind of talent available to you, you have to find a way, and it’s competitions like this one which allow you to do it. The draw was relatively kind for the next round too, Preston away, so it should hopefully be another opportunity for some of these lads.

What I would say though is that Nwaneri in particular looks ready to go. I watched him on the pre-season tour, and I came away with the same feeling about him I had about Joe Willock and Saka in 2019. If we needed him in a Premier League, I would have no compunction in using him. The same goes for Lewis-Skelly by the way, who was impressive too, but there’s a bit more ahead of him at left-back just at the moment.

Afterwards, a pleased Mikel Arteta said:

A really positive night, the result, the performance we gave minutes to a lot of senior players and they really showed a lot of quality tonight and on top of that we gave a lot of opportunity to quite a lot of academy players, they responded really well, and it’s so fulfilling to see their faces, their reaction how much it means to them, so great night.

And on Nwaneri:

 You can tell he’s playing without pressure, with confidence, with a way of making decisions that tells you that the boy is ready at this level. Today he had a really strong performance and I’m happy to see that.

As for the goalscorer himself, he said:

“It’s a surreal feeling. It’s a feeling I’ve wanted to feel for almost 16 years of my life so to actually feel it, it’s crazy, I just want more of it.”

I think it’s also fair to acknowledge the role the senior players had last night. I was impressed with Jakub Kiwior, Sterling got valuable minutes, Saka and Rice were as good as you’d expect, and even the way we protected a 16 year in goal is worth pointing out. We didn’t ask him to do too much, we dealt with Bolton’s set-pieces well, and I enjoyed the fact the last moment of the game was Porter making a claim from a corner. A nice way for him to end his debut.

Now, we take stock ahead of this weekend’s game against Leicester. The last week seems to have taken its toll a bit in terms of injury, but there are a couple of days to see who is gonna be available. Stand by for a post-game Arsecast a little later on, and good luck to Arsenal Women who are in Champions League qualifying action this evening.

For now, have a good one.