Mikel Arteta says Ethan Nwaneri ‘looks like a different man’ since returning to Arsenal from his loan move at Marseille.
Nwaneri, 19, joined Marseille on loan in January after struggling for game-time at the Emirates Stadium.
The Arsenal academy graduate was expected to feature regularly last season after making 37 appearances in all competitions during the 2024-25 campaign.
But Nwaneri only played six Premier League games before Arsenal agreed to send him to Ligue 1 side Marseille in the hope he would get more minutes and develop his game.
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The midfielder, who is the youngest player to ever play in the Premier League, scored just 13 minutes into his Marseille debut but then proceeded to fall out of favour, only making 11 appearances across his stint in France.
A number of pundits criticised Arteta’s decision to loan out Nwaneri, who is widely seen as the future of Arsenal, especially given the way his Marseille spell played out.
Arteta admits the loan spell ‘wasn’t ideal’ but believes Nwaneri’s time away from Arsenal will ‘help him a lot in his career’.
‘On the pitch, he didn’t [work] because a lot happened in Marseille,’ Arteta said after Arsenal beat Girona 4-1 in their first pre-season friendly.
‘But when you just stand in front of him, you sense the maturity and he looks like a different man.
‘The experience on paper, it wasn’t ideal but I think he went through something that is going to help him a lot in his career.’
Nwaneri will face even more competition at Arsenal next season as the Gunners close in on a deal for Newcastle United midfielder Bruno Guimaraes.
Arteta refused to discuss any specific deals after the win over Girona but insisted Arsenal were ‘really active’ in the summer transfer market.
The Premier League-winning boss said: ‘We are really active trying to improve and evolve the team; that’s clear.
‘We expect to have movements in the next few weeks, obviously. We want to get better like anybody else, and you just can see the transfer market and our opponents, what we are doing.
‘We won’t sit still and we are very ambitious with what we are doing.’
Asked why it was so important to bolster his Arsenal squad this summer, Arteta added: ‘Because the margins are very small.
‘Because we want to get better and the level is going to increase. We need to increase the competition internally.
‘We need to make sure we identify the things that we don’t have in the team. We have bigger margins and that’s the way we have to see it.’
Arsenal face Real Betis in their next pre-season friendly before warm-up games against Borussia Dortmund and Como.
Arteta’s side begin their Premier League title defence on August 21 against newly-promoted Coventry City, managed by Frank Lampard.
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