Mikel Arteta has a raft of players aged 21 or under who can breakthrough into the Arsenal first-team this season, including William Saliba and the Gunners’ new signing Marquinhos.
Arsenal players aged 21 or under set to breakthrough in 2022/23
The Spaniard put a lot of faith in emerging talents last term as the Emirates Stadium outfit narrowly missed out on Champions League qualification. Arsenal locked out the top 20 for the youngest average ages of a starting line-up during the 2021/22 Premier League season.
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In fact, Arsenal featured 25 times in the top-30, with sides that Arteta fielded ranging from 23.8 to 25 years old. The XI the Gunners sent out in a goalless draw with Burnley in January that registered at 23.8 years old was also their 10th youngest XI in the Premier League-era.
At the time of Burnley’s visit to north London, among those Arteta started included Aaron Ramsdale and Martin Odegaard at 23, Albert Sambi Lokonga at 22, Emile Smith Rowe at 21 plus Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka at 20. Alexandre Lacazette was their eldest at 30.
Young players would ultimately help lead Arsenal to a fifth-place finish under Arteta and to qualify for the Europa League. The additional fixtures should see the Spaniard now afford a further influx of emerging talents a chance to breakthrough into the Gunners’ senior ranks.
William Saliba tops five Arsenal players 21 or under who can breakthrough
William Saliba tops a list of Arsenal players aged 21 or under entering the 2022/23 season who can now breakthrough under Mikel Arteta. The centre-half has been on the Gunners’ books for the past three years, but is still yet to make his debut for the north London club.
Unai Emery signed Saliba from Saint-Etienne aged 18 in 2019 for £27m on a five-year deal. But the Frenchman spent the following season back at the then-Ligue 1 outfit on loan, and returned to the Emirates Stadium in the summer of 2020 to find Arteta stood at the helm.
Saliba would go on to enjoy further loan spells with OGC Nice in the first half of 2021, then joining Marseille for the 2021/22 campaign. He would establish his potential firmly at OM, and the now-21-year-old also made the first of his five caps for France so far during March.
His return to north London this summer should represent the true start of Saliba’s Arsenal career. A breakthrough under Arteta is not just likely, but should be a certainty. While the defender has also blown some of his Arsenal teammates away, like Albert Sambi Lokonga.
“I didn’t know he was so good,” the midfielder told The Counter Attack Podcast. “When I saw him for the first time, I said: ‘Wow, he is really, really good!’. So, I was surprised Arsenal let him go on loan and he didn’t play.”
Marquinhos one for the future but can breakthrough after summer signing
Mikel Arteta has signed Marquinhos as one for the future after Arsenal secured a £3m deal with Sau Paulo for their former academy player after his first-team breakthrough last year.
The 19-year-old made 42 senior appearances with his hometown team before the Gunners came calling for his services. He also offered four goals and three assists, and has featured for Brazil at U16s and U17s levels. Marquinhos can also play anywhere across the frontline.
Arsenal will likely play Marquinhos’ introduction to the first-team fold cautiously as he gets to grip with the English game. But with Europa League minutes on offer, alongside Carabao Cup and FA Cup fixtures, it would not be a surprise if the teenager features here and there.
Brooke Norton-Cuffy to build on successful Lincoln City loan spell
Brooke Norton-Cuffy could enjoy his breakthrough in the Arsenal first-team this term after the 18-year-old’s successful Lincoln City loan spell. He spent the latter half of last season at the LNER Stadium, and proved an instant hit in League One with 17 appearances, 13 starts.
The right-back also provided one goal and an assist as the Imps ended the season in 17th-place. While Norton-Cuffy’s efforts also caught Mikel Arteta’s attention, as football.london reported in February that the Arsenal manager and Per Mertesacker were both impressed.
Former Lincoln boss Michael Appleton also hailed Norton-Cuffy for delivering ‘outstanding’ performances under his coaching. So, a first-team breakthrough back at Arsenal may be on its way for the Hale End product, who is yet to feature in any competitive first-team sides.
Tim Akinola to show why Tomas Partey praised him after training
Tim Akinola will hope to show during the 2022/23 season why Thomas Partey once praised him after a first-team training session. The 21-year-old has been at the Gunners since 2020 after he moved to north London from Huddersfield Town, but has yet made a senior team.
Arsenal sent the defensive midfielder to Scottish Premiership team Dundee United on loan for the latter half of last term. But the switch would, unfortunately, only return one outing, before he suffered a severe ankle injury in training that required him to undergo surgery.
Akinola has now returned to fitness and will hope to make his first-team breakthrough for Arsenal, if a late loan move does not materialise. And he already has a fan in the squad, as football.london once noted Partey dubbed him the strongest player he’d ever played with.
Salah Oulad M’hand already on Mikel Arteta’s radar without debuting
Salah Oulad M’hand is already on Mikel Arteta’s radar, but the Arsenal academy player is yet to debut under him. The 18-year-old featured in a senior matchday squad for the first time last October, and ended last season with a total of nine inclusions in all competitions.
He sat on the bench for three Carabao Cup ties, including both legs of their semi-final with Liverpool. Oulad M’hand also watched on as Arsenal lost 1-0 at Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup, alongside five Premier League fixtures – including four of their final five matches.
Arteta may now afford Oulad M’hand his first-team breakthrough in one of the cups that Arsenal will compete in. It would be his first senior minutes for any club so far, having not turned out for Feyenoord’s senior fold before leaving the Dutch side’s academy in 2020.
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