Arsenal's 5-1 thrashing of Manchester City at the Emirates on Sunday was not only significant in keeping their title hopes alive, but in righting the wrongs from their fiery encounter with Pep Guardiola's side back in September.
Myles Lewis-Skelly, who made his Premier League debut in the reverse fixture at the Etihad, scored his first senior goal and Ethan Nwaneri became the youngest player to score a league goal against the reigning champions since Wayne Rooney did so for Everton against Arsenal in March 2003.
On Monday's episode of The Athletic FC Podcast, Ayo Akinwolere was joined by James McNicholas, Phil Hay and Art de Roche to discuss the impact made by Arsenal's teenage kicks.
A partial transcript has been edited for clarity and length. The full episode is available on YouTube below or in The Athletic FC Podcast feed on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Ayo: James, you saw these players in pre-season. What were you seeing in America? Did you envisage that this was where it was going to go? Because Mikel Arteta has been criticised for not using his youth...
James: I have to say I didn't expect it to happen so quickly. They were really impressive on the tour. Both of them. I think the club have to be given some credit for holding on to these players. There was a lot of competition for their first professional deals and with Nwaneri, Chelsea came in hard and ultimately he committed to Arsenal. They kept Lewis-Skelly as well, that was vital. But they also integrated them really effectively this summer and they were earmarked for positions in the first-team squad.
Arsenal made decisions like selling Emile Smith Rowe and loaning out Fabio Vieira, decisions that seemingly left them light. Those were taken partly to afford opportunities to someone like Nwaneri. Lewis-Skelly, I always thought it would be more difficult for him to make that breakthrough because Arsenal have a ton of left-backs. Not only did they spend £42million on Riccardo Calafiori, but they've also got Kieran Tierney, Oleksandr Zinchenko, Jakub Kiwior, Jurrien Timber and Takehiro Tomiyasu can play there.
Despite all that, and yes there have been injuries, for Lewis-Skelly to have worked his way into a position where he's now effectively Arsenal's starting left-back is quite extraordinary, so huge credit to them.
Credit to the manager as well because I think Mikel Arteta recognised in himself that was sort of an evolution that he needed to take as a manager. He needed to reach a place of maturity where he felt able to take these risks on these young players, to trust them. And he was quite open about that with us during the summer, saying, "That's a stage I need to reach as a manager. I need to be brave enough." He's got to that place now and he's been richly rewarded because they've been absolutely fantastic.
They're both in a place in their careers where they haven't really encountered an obstacle yet. They've taken to the Premier League like ducks to water and they are absolutely flying. It's incredible to see the amount of confidence and belief they're playing with. And their progress may not always be linear in that way. There will be challenges, there will be moments they have to overcome. There will be mistakes and they will present their own difficulties. And if they're good enough, they'll overcome those. But what's incredible, what's a joy to watch, is that they're in that honeymoon period now where they just seem to feel invincible.
Ayo: There is something really beautiful about this for any team in the Premier League. Amid the billions, amid the corporate structures, there is still a beauty to seeing that kid. And it's hard to make it out of an academy into the first team because there's also international talent they're recruiting in those spots.
Art: One other thing that's massive is a lot of the fanbase can identify with these players. Not just as footballers and how they play, but as people as well. That's one thing that made me so fond of someone like Emile Smith Rowe, who we mentioned earlier. I could see myself in him. I think when generations come through, obviously we spoke about (Jack) Wilshere and (Aaron) Ramsey earlier, too, you have these players that when they come in so young, you naturally just gravitate towards them. I think one thing that helped yesterday was the whole stadium wanted Myles and Ethan to score. When they did, that was probably the wildest I'd seen the Emirates for a while.
On James' point on having to overcome obstacles, I think it's weird that we've probably already forgotten that Ethan had to overcome an obstacle with the injury he had last month -- scored against Brighton, then came off at half-time with a muscular issue. He came back and was just as physical, just as imposing as he was before the injury. I think that's just as impressive as what he's been doing since pre-season, or even when he made his debut two-and-a-half years ago against Brentford. So big props to both and big credit to the club as well.
James: We speak about these previous generations, be that Wilshere and Ramsey or even more recently Smith Rowe, (Bukayo) Saka, Eddie Nketiah and Reiss Nelson. They broke through at a time when Arsenal were not the force that they are at this point in time, when they were not necessarily challenging for league titles or third in the Champions League table as they are at this point. For these players to be getting a chance in the first team and seizing that chance in the strongest Arsenal team for probably 20 years, I think is a testament to their talent and their mentality.
Phil: It's almost like the one connection now to the community where clubs play is academy production, particularly of players who grew up in the local area. Obviously, you have a club stadium, but we were writing recently about the Italian Super Cup and the Spanish Super Cup, both of which were played in Saudi Arabia for money, let's be honest. So even that, as time goes on, you suspect will be less and less of a tie. But academy kids from where you come from are as close a tie to the local area as you can possibly get.
Art: Arsenal are really conscious of that as well. When you look at the stadium artwork around the Emirates, one of the panels is just about the academy that's come through. Wilshere is on there, Charlie George I think. So having these two come through at the same time is massive for them.
You can listen to full episodes of The Athletic FC Podcast for free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and watch on YouTube.