It was only last season that Myles Lewis-Skelly was a regular at Hale End, playing in Arsenal’s youth team.
Before the 2024/25 campaign, the 18-year-old’s only involvement in Arsenal’s first team was being named on the bench in the Premier League and Champions League.
Now, Lewis-Skelly is an England international and a vital member of Mikel Arteta’s squad, leapfrogging anticipated first-team regulars to become a starter.
Arteta has snubbed £42m summer signing Riccardo Calafiori in favour of the teenager at times throughout the season, telling all that needs to be known about the youngster’s quality.
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Jack Wilshere didn’t think Myles Lewis-Skelly would be a left-back at Arsenal
Lewis-Skelly has stunned his Arsenal teammates to become Arteta’s favoured left-back, and it’s not only those within the squad that are astonished by his breakthrough.
During his time coaching at Arsenal’s academy, club icon Jack Wilshere spoke highly of the teen, but not as a left-back, and rather as a central midfielder, which is his favoured position.
Speaking to The Athletic in 2023, Wilshere predicted that the Hale End prodigy wouldn’t be a left-back in the Gunners’ first team, which has since been proven wrong.
“I don’t think he’ll be a left-back; he’ll be a midfielder. But if we give him a little bit of everything (it will help),” Wilshere said.
The Arsenal legend then went on to explain that, despite strictly seeing Lewis-Skelly as a midfielder, it was ‘important’ for the scholar to learn the ropes as a full-back, given how the role has changed as the game continues to evolve.
“It’s important for him. You look at our first team and the way football’s going with players like Oleksandr Zinchenko, the full-back has to be able to play inside.”
When looking at Arsenal’s full-backs, the focus is minimally on defensive duties, as Ben White’s support of Bukayo Saka on the right was one ingredient to the Gunners increasing their status as title challengers.
Lewis-Skelly is the perfect left-back in Mikel Arteta’s system
Wilshere predicted that Lewis-Skelly would be a midfielder, but suggested that the door be left open for the Hale End graduate to venture into the left-back role.
Arteta has done such, with the 18-year-old yet to play in central midfield for Arsenal, but that hasn’t restricted him.
When looking at Lewis-Skelly’s data on Sofascore from the 2024/25 Premier League season, his heatmap reveals the truth behind his role in Arteta’s XI.
Though a lot of the Englishman’s activity comes on the left, sometimes hugging the touchline, a lot is happening in central areas, signifying how he often drifts infield.
Such suggests that there won’t be urgency to test the academy product in his favoured central midfield position any time soon, as he’s tending to Arsenal’s needs, and his own, expertly.
What Lewis-Skelly offers Arteta in the inverted role will please the boss tremendously, being a player capable of seeing to defensive duties while having the intelligence to venture when appropriate.
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