Mikel Arteta has provided an update on Ethan Nwaneri’s fitness after he limped off during the final stages of Arsenal’s loss to West Ham.

The young winger started the game on the right wing and showed promise early on. However, a lack of support from his teammates meant he couldn’t make the impact he had hoped for.

Nwaneri was eventually substituted for Raheem Sterling in the 81st minute, appearing to limp off the field while applauding the home fans.

This raised concerns that he might have picked up an injury, especially with Arsenal already dealing with several attacking injuries. Arteta, however, quickly downplayed these worries when asked about Nwaneri’s fitness after the match.

When asked for an update on the 17-year-old’s condition in his press conference, Arteta responded: “No, hopefully not, he was just fatigued, I think.”

Nwaneri briefly shared the pitch with Myles Lewis-Skelly, another Arsenal academy product who has made a successful transition to the senior team in recent months.

The young defender was brought on in the second half but only lasted 17 minutes before being sent off for a reckless challenge on Mohamed Kudus.

Lewis-Skelly was initially given a yellow card for bringing Kudus down while trying to recover from his mistake. After a VAR review, his punishment was upgraded to a red card for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity.

Asked for his thoughts on the decision to send Lewis-Skelly off, Arteta replied: “I haven’t seen it back, but honestly, I will focus on what we need to do. I don’t know if the decision was right or wrong.

“I haven’t seen it, and I don’t want to judge it, but there were a lot of things we should have done better today, and it wasn’t. I will need to review the action to evaluate it.”