Arsenal progressed to the next round of the Carabao Cup picking up a 5-1 win over Bolton Wanderers to set up a tie against Preston North End in the next round of the tournament, OwnGoalNigeria.com reports.
Coach of Arsenal Mikel Arteta handed debut to two young players from the club’s academy in Jack Porter who started in goal, Josh Nichols who played at right back while the duo of Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly started their first game for the club.
They gave a good account of themselves with Nichols who recently turned 18 catching the eyes with his composition on the ball, and also his link up play with Bukayo Saka on the right. Despite his small frame he was hardly bullied by bigger players for the entire duration of the game.
Per what we gathered about him, Nichols is born to a Nigerian mother and a Jamaican father and grew up in England making him eligible for all three countries at senior level.
Speaking to the Arsenal matchday programme in April, Nichols said: “I was born in Newham, and I grew up around Dagenham. When I was around nine or ten, I moved out to Essex and started playing football at the Sunday League level for my local team called Euro Dagenham, and I just loved it.
“My dad was big into football too – he used to play and now coaches, so he has encouraged me a lot.
“My family background is that my mum is Nigerian, and my dad is Jamaican and Guyanese. In school I did a lot of athletics, and sprinting, but I was good at long jump; that was one of my specialties.”
