Ethan Nwaneri’s brother scores hat-trick in Arsenal-Chelsea youth clash

Photo via Emerson Nwaneri on Instagram

While Ethan Nwaneri was in action for the Arsenal first-team against Nottingham Forest on Saturday, his younger brother was playing for the Gunners’ academy teams.

Emerson Nwaneri was in action for the Arsenal u16s against Chelsea, and he put in a starring performance by scoring a hat-trick.

With Joshua Sesay also scoring for the u16s and assisting one of Emerson’s goals, Arsenal ended up winning the match 4-3. It was a good day for the academy overall, with the u18s coming from behind to draw with Chelsea and remain top of the u18 Premier League South in a concurrent fixture.

Photo via Emerson Nwaneri on Instagram

Like his older brother, Emerson Nwaneri is a midfielder. But he can play at right-back as well, so he’s usually the more defensive of the Nwaneri siblings. That evidently wasn’t the case on Saturday though.

Still just 15 years old, Emerson made an appearance for the Arsenal u18s in pre-season, coming off the bench in a friendly against Dover Athletic.

But Emerson remains an u16 player for the most part, and he’ll hope to make the transition to competitive u18 football as the season goes on.

Photo via Emerson Nwaneri on Instagram

“We’re really close, but I wouldn’t say we are that similar,” Ethan Nwaneri said about his brother in an interview last year. “He’s probably more outgoing than me – he’s the loud one!

“There are three years between us so it would be really cool if we could both play in the Arsenal first-team together one day. We’ve spoken about that a bit and what that would be like, it’s something to aim for.”

View publisher imprint