Arsenal's Nigeria-eligible Ethan Nwaneri becomes youngest ever Premier league player

NIGERIA-eligible midfielder Ethan Nwaneri has become the youngest ever footballer to feature in the English Premier League after he came on for Arsenal today during their match against Brentford aged 15 years and 181 days old.

Arsenal, who have got off to a flying start this season, are the surprise leaders of the English Premier League at the moment after seven games. Today, the Gunners continued their winning ways with a 3-0 victory over Brentford in a London derby at the Brentford Community Stadium.

In the 92nd minute, Nwaneri came on to become the youngest ever player in Arsenal’s history to play top flight football. When they were comfortably 3-0 up, the youngster came on for goal scorer Fabio Viera, who was also making his debut for the club, in what was a glorious outing for Arsenal.

Nwaneri, who was born in 2007, only made his debut for the Arsenal under-21 side this season but he has clearly caught the eye of manager Mikel Arteta with the youth teams and in training. He was seen training with the first-team squad this week and was subsequently handed a huge opportunity by being named in a match-day squad at senior level for the first time.

Up until today, Liverpool's Harvey Elliott held the record as the youngest ever Premier League player at the age of 16 years and 30 days when he was at Fulham. Cesc Fabregas previously held the Arsenal record of its youngest ever first team player having featured at 16 years and 177 days in a League Cup match against Rotherham in 2003.

Jack Wilshere was the youngest ever Arsenal player to have ever featured in a Premier League match up until today. He was 16 years and 256 days old when he came on against Blackburn for his debut in September 2008.