On the Whistle: Arsenal 5-1 Bolton - "Ethan Nwaneri should start against Leicester"

Hello guys, full time at the Emirates Stadium, Arsenal 5, Bolton Wanderers 1. And I really enjoyed that, I really enjoyed that. Maybe it's partly because I'm a fan of a certain era, certain age, I've got some scars from some battles with Bolton at the Reebok Stadium and facing Sam Allardyce over the years. At home however, our record was always pretty good against them. And this is a very different Bolton, a League 1 Bolton, a side towards the bottom half of League 1 who made a number of changes, so maybe no surprise that we ran riot with five goals. I think I also just enjoy these League Cup games, I kind of always have. You know, going back to the kind of League Cup vintage of Carlos Vela and Fran Morida and before that Cesc Fabregas and Quincy Owusu-Obeye and all those names that we'd get to see some of. I like getting a chance to see the young players in a first team environment, I like seeing the players on the fringes of the squad. I feel like you learn a lot in these games and actually I've been a bit sort of disappointed in previous years when we've been drawn against, I don't know, a Premier League side away from home, had to play quite a strong, strong-ish team, you know, nothing particularly interesting in the XI and sometimes gone out, right? This was perfect, home draw, lower league side, get to have a look at everyone, yum yum yum. So what I'm going to do is talk about it, well I better talk about the headline, I better talk about the headline I'm going to put on it because I know what it's going to be already and it's going to be that Ethan Ranieri should start at the weekend. It's a bit provocative but it is what I think and I'll tell you why. It's not because he scored two goals tonight, I mean that does help and he looked excellent but we have a need in our team. We are missing a player in Martin Odegaard who we don't have an obvious replacement for apart from Ethan Ranieri. I genuinely think he is the closest thing we have in the squad to Martin Odegaard. Watching him tonight, watching his relationship with Bukayo Saka, the way they were exchanging passes on the right-hand side for the first hour, seeing his intuitive understanding of our tactical system, I just thought what are we waiting for? It's a home game against Leicester and if we can't play Ethan Ranieri there, when can we play him? Now look he played plenty of minutes tonight and maybe there'll be some hesitation. I don't expect Michael Arteta to do it. I expect him to put Trossard in up top, Havertz in as the right-sided eight, Rice on the left, Thomas Partey in behind right? But when you look at that midfield and you look at Rice and you look at Havertz and you think about their qualities, their calibre, they're fantastic physical players. Are they great passers? Are they great combination players with Saka? Are they the type to rat-a-tat the ball around the midfield, you know, shift players out of position? I don't think they are and I think Ethan Ranieri is. I think Ethan Ranieri is. You know, you could play against Leicester, you keep Trossard up top because he'll be back from suspension but take Thomas Partey out, shift Declan Rice into number six, you know, let him be the deepest lineman fielder, play Kai Havertz to the left-hand side, Ranieri to the right, Rice, Havertz and Ranieri. That to me as a midfield three has more balance and look if it doesn't work, bring him off, bring him off at half-time if you want. He's 17 years old, it's not going to hurt him. It's going to be, you know, great experience whatever happens but I think on this evidence that is what we should be doing and the question I would ask again is if not now when? You know, we need that creative midfield player in our team. We need someone who can emulate that Saka-Odegaard partnership and he is the guy. He is the guy. Right, what I'm going to do for the rest of the players is just kind of player by player. I'm standing in my kitchen by the way. It's just I can't get any light anywhere else. So I need a house guys. I need just, you know, I don't know what I need more YouTube sponsorship because basically I need a house with a studio in it but it's not going to happen for the time being. Okay, I'm going to do like player by player analysis. So let's start with Jack Porter, 16 years old, playing in goal for Arsenal today. How we arrived at that point is kind of incredible. You know, a few coincidental things, slight injury worried David Rye who I think will be okay for the weekend. Injuries for Tommy Setford, Lucas Nygaard has been out injured, young Scandinavian keeper we brought in in the summer, Neto cut tied and so this guy gets his chance above. Rojas who we also have on the book so I think is about 18 but I think they think slightly more highly of Jack Porter. Didn't get the clean sheet, might have had to face a penalty early on by the way, I thought that was a penalty for Bolton but wasn't given. The goal I felt from a bit because the aim of the game tonight was kind of protect the 16 year old in goal and on that counter-attack he wasn't given much help, you know, Declan Rice and Giorgino desperately trying to get back but didn't get there in the end. I think Miles Lewis Skelly chasing back as well after his pass had been intercepted, that may have been where he injured himself. And on the goal, I think maybe he was a bit hesitant coming out but I loved it that in stoppage time he came out and caught that cross and had that moment right before full-time. No criticism at all of him, how can you, 16 years old, it's kind of an extraordinary feat that he was able to play that game without completely going to pieces, you know. 16, he was only 16 in July, right, a couple of months ago. Wow, what a moment for him, Arsenal's youngest ever starting player, I believe. I imagine we won't see him in the first team again for some time but what a feather in his cap and what an experience for him tonight. Josh Nicholls at right back, I thought actually did quite well, I was really impressed with him in pre-season. There were some moments where I think he showed maybe that he's not quite ready but I thought he was involved in build-up very well, nice pass from him in the lead-up to the opening goal, I think. Tapped in as a kind of third centre-half, interesting player and one we'll keep an eye on. At centre-half, Calafiore, I thought looked really good, I thought he looked great, especially when he went over to left-back in the second half. We've used the term Rolls-Royce to describe Williams Lee but I guess we need, I've just realised my dishwasher's on, that's what that background sound is, my dishwasher. We need an Italian car to describe Calafiore, a Ferrari, a Ferrari of a defender. Kivio, I thought Kivio, yeah he did okay, right-sided centre-half is a difficult position for a left-footed defender. I thought he looked comfortable when he went over to left-back. We had three left-backs in the course of the game. His pathways to the first team looks tricky. By the way, during this game, at some point in the second half, I suddenly remembered Takahiro Tomiyasu. I've not thought about him for weeks. With all respect, I love Tomiyasu, he's a great player but I've not thought about him at all. We've got so much defensive depth now, it's hard to see where the likes of Tomiyasu and Kivio are going to get these games. Tomiyasu's got to get back from injury first. Miles Lewis-Skelly, what a pass in the build-up to the second goal. For all my praise of Nanneri, I really think Miles Lewis-Skelly is at the same level. I love his physicality on the pitch and I love his personality. I love that he's 17 years old and you can see him pointing, directing other players, telling them where to move, telling them where he wants the ball, when he wants it. I love what he did on Sunday, standing up to Erling Haal. That pass, there is a personality in his passing too. He puts a message on the ball. He tells you what to do with his passing and I like that. I think he's a great prospect. Shame for him that he got the injury, hopefully it's not too bad. It's always a risk when you're overexerting yourself. What a big night it was for him and as I say, I wonder if he did it chasing back, trying to stop that counter. He's thriving in that left-back role and I think we'll see more of him this season. I think the need for him in the team is obviously less than it is for Nanneri right now because we've got left-backs, we've got Calafiore, we've got Kivio, we've got Timba. Tomiyasu's come back, we've even got Chiarantini, another player you might have forgotten about. But I think Lewis Skelly is a real prospect. Zinchenko, well Zinchenko is the model and I wonder if at some point in time, if Zinchenko leaves, could Lewis Skelly be ready to take up that position in the squad? You'd like to think so. Midfield, Jorginho, solid performance. Good to see him play. We've not seen a great deal of him and I think he's still got an important role to play in the squad. Declan Rice, excellent. So good. A leader. Helped the young players around him as he helps everybody. Scored an opening goal to settle Arsenal's nerves. Brilliant finish, edge of the box. I know he's got that in his locker but I think we don't have to see him playing at number six as something that prohibits him scoring that sort of goal. Look at Rodri, look at the goals Rodri scores. Won't be scoring many more this season but Rice could do that and actually playing deeper might help him. You know, rather than receiving the ball inside a penalty area, he'll be arriving onto the ball. He'll be in position for us to pull it back and he can hit those sweeping shots from the edge of the box. Ranieri, I've talked about a bit but he's just very, very mature. Really understands the tactical side of the game. His touch is excellent. Had the confidence to take on that chance when Rice won the ball high up the pitch for his second goal. I think we need what he offers in Odegaard's absence. Pekkai Saka, I thought was brilliant tonight actually. Almost unplayable. He's playing against a team from two divisions below so you kind of expect that but I thought he was excellent and constant threat. Liked his combinations with Ranieri, liked his combinations with Raheem Sterling. Another player had a really good night and he might feel he has a case to be in at the weekend. I think given the minutes he played tonight, I know he's one of the first off but I don't see that. I see him coming off the bench. What I saw in Sterling is that guy knows where to run. He knows where to stand. He might not be as quick as the Raheem Sterling we saw burst onto the scene with Liverpool. In fact, he definitely isn't as quick but he's super smart. He understands the game and I was very impressed by his lateral movement. His runs kind of across the pitch, popping up in central areas. We know all the stories of Arteta working with him on his runs and his goal scoring. I think he could add another dimension to this Arsenal team. His execution isn't always perfect. It really isn't. His touch can go, his shots can be a bit meh but he gets in dangerous position after dangerous position and as we remember with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, that really is half the game for a forward. Gabriel Jesus, typical Gabriel Jesus in some ways. Worked really hard but maybe didn't have the final pass. Lovely work in the build-up to the fifth goal. I think he looks a bit rusty still. These will have been valuable minutes for him. Plenty of players came off the bench. Kai Havertz came on and got himself a goal. Maldini Kakuri came on at centre-half. There were lots of changes. We saw Gabriel, a few others. But this was a really good night. Hopefully we get another good draw, another home game. Another chance for some of these young players to impress. Michael Arteta will be really pleased with what he saw tonight. It's been a hard start to the season. We've watched Arsenal have a lot of hard, tense games. It's nice to have a relax and watch us play some good football and score some goals. I'll be there on Saturday and working at the game. Really looking forward to it. My schedule has prevented me from getting to quite a few games recently. Really looking forward to watching and doing one of these videos from the stadium. You'd like to think that's a game we'd win. We've got a few winnable games coming up in the league. Huge game against PSG in the Champions League next week as well. Maybe there'll be some more rotation to help us get through those two games. A few players threw their hats in the ring for possible starting positions. I'll leave it there guys. Thanks for watching and I'll speak to you all soon. Bye bye.