Arsenal: Young player opportunity crucial to summer business

After some promising performances in Arsenal’s 3-1 win over Burnley, Unai Emery stated that he must give the young players at the club more opportunities. The future role of the young talent must be crucial to the summer business the club undertakes in the coming months.

One of the benefits of having nothing to play for in the final game of the season was that Arsenal manager Unai Emery could use the trip to Burnley as an opportunity to field some younger players who would normally not be handed a chance to play.

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Joe Willock made his first Premier League start of his career, Eddie Nketiah played the final half-hour, scoring his first-ever Premier League goal, while Dinos Mavropanos, Matteo Guendouzi and Alex Iwobi all featured as well.

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After the 3-1 victory, Emery was asked about the talent of some of the young players at the club — loanees Reiss Nelson and Emile Smith Rowe are also considered some of the shining lights — and whether he viewed any of them developing into first-team players beyond the summer. This is what he had to say:

"“We need to use young players like Ramsey who played here when he was young. Every player can take chances and use these chances to improve with us. Willock and Nketiah played the 90 minutes, they used this time to help us with a good match. It’s our responsibility to give them chances but find the best performance as a team. Young players need opportunities to be with us in training.”"

Emery wants to hand his young talent opportunities, that much is clear. The opportunities that Emery is able to give to the young players, however, will largely be dictated by the business of the club this summer.

Take Eddie Nketiah as a prime example. With Danny Welbeck leaving, he is the de facto reserve centre-forward behind Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Some may argue that Arsenal need to sign a more experienced back-up for a pair of strikers that they have been completely dependent on this season. But in signing that player, Nketiah’s opportunities to play would be substantially cut down.

The same argument could be made for Smith Rowe or Willock, both of which may fancy themselves as Aaron Ramsey replacements. It is also true for Reiss Nelson, Bukayo Saka and the winger positions. There is obviously a great need to fill at both left and right wing, but does Nelson or Saka not deserve a chance to prove that they themselves can fill that need?

Talking about handing young players opportunities is all well and good, but it means nothing without tangible action. And for Arsenal and Emery, that starts with the players they sign — or more impactfully, the players they do not sign — this summer.