Nicholas Yennaris, another young bright prospect for the future.
The 18-year-old was simply brilliant when he came on last week in place of Johan Djourou against Manchester United at the Emirates. And to my surprise, the young right-back kept his cool in such a big game, whereas the man he came on for, even though he played out of position, seemed out of place (excuse the pun).
Yennaris almost completely kept Nani at bay and stopped the attacks coming down the Portuguese’s flank. Nico’s performance was met with high praise by Arsenal captain Robin van Persie.
The Dutch striker said:
‘I’ve seen him improve his game massively of late, even over the last couple of weeks.
‘What I like about him is that he always looks forward when he has the ball. He’s a right back who wants to play and bring others into the game – there aren’t many full backs who always do that, but for me it makes a massive difference.’
He added:
‘On top of that, you could see that Nani became less dangerous in the second half and Nico played a big part in that.
‘Like Alex, he can be proud of himself; to play like that in such a big game shows great promise.’
Personally, I was amazed to see Yennaris came on last Sunday, and truly thought Nani would’ve run riot on the right flank. But the teenager managed to keep him quiet and pull out a good performance.
Not only did he defend well, he made some good darting forward runs and put in a couple decent of crosses into the box. The best part of his game was that he didn’t seem intimidated at all by the occasion.
Yennaris is certainly a great talent for the future, but not much of a threat to Arsenal’s Mr. Consistent Bacary Sagna – yet. But I would say in about 2-3 years time Nico could be a healthy thorn in Sagna’s side and a headache for Arsene Wenger at right-back position.
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