Mikel Arteta was delighted with what he saw from Ethan Nwaneri during Wednesday’s 5-1 home win over Bolton Wanderers in the Carabao Cup.

The Hale End academy graduate scored twice to take us through to the fourth round of the competition.

By the time he had completed his two performances, the crowd at Emirates Stadium were in complete agreement with what they had seen, chanting loudly: “Ethan Nwaneri, he is one of us.”

“He’s improving every day,” Mikel added. “They really respect him. You see him playing without pressure, with confidence, with a way of making decisions that tells you the boy is ready for this level. Today he really put in a strong performance and I’m happy to see that.

“There are many positives to take from it, first of all the performance and then the way we scored the goals. We gave minutes, deserved minutes to many first team players who needed them. And of course we also had very important debuts that we are very proud of.”

One of those early starts was taken by Raheem Sterling, who rewarded Arteta’s faith in the game with a second-half goal.

“He was great,” said our manager. “I think he’s starting to show glimpses of what he can do, especially in attacking moments. Physically he has to get to the level we need, but I think today was a huge step.”

Finally, Mikel shared his thoughts on why Wednesday was a night of celebration for our academy, after Mehmet Ali said on Monday that these opportunities are so much more beautiful when our young people work hard to earn them.

“It’s much better if they deserve it and they’re here for the right reasons and they’ve done it,” Mikel added. “They’ve done it by proving they can compete at this level in pre-season and that’s why we trust them to do the job today.

“(The younger players) need to see that the door is open, that the opportunity is there. It’s achievable and hopefully that message gets across. Big credit to everyone involved in the academy. They’ve contributed and given us these players in the way that they are, so I think it was a positive night for the team as well.”