Mikel Arteta tells £38m Arsenal player that he has to ‘earn his place’ after what happened recently

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Arsenal went into Christmas in great spirits thanks to back-to-back wins.

The Gunners first beat Crystal Palace in the EFL Cup and booked their place in the semi-final of the competition. Then, they beat the Eagles again, this time in the Premier League.

A number of Arsenal players performed brilliantly in those two games and have since earned a lot of plaudits from fans, pundits and the media.

One of them is Myles Lewis-Skelly, who has impressed at left-back.

Mikel Arteta tells Riccardo Calafiori to ‘earn his place’ after Myles Lewis-Skelly’s recent displays

Lewis-Skelly is naturally a midfielder, but he has been asked to fill in at left-back because of Arsenal’s injury issues.

The Gunners have been without Riccardo Calafiori and Oleksandr Zinchenko in recent games, while although Kieran Tierney featured in the EFL Cup and did well, he is nowhere near the top of the pecking order.

That opened the door for Lewis-Skelly to get opportunities, and the 18-year-old has been incredible. He has been able to cope with the physicality of the senior game very well and hasn’t looked out of place at all.

Lewis-Skelly’s performances have been so good that Calafiori, who is the first-choice left-back and is back fit now, may not get back into the side straight away.

Arteta has now publicly told the Italian to ‘earn his place’ in the side after his spell away because of injury.

Speaking about Lewis-Skelly, Arteta said, as relayed on HaytersTV: “He played because, in my opinion, he deserved to play. He’s fit, he played the previous game, he did really well, he trains every day with us and Riccardo (Calafiori) was coming back from injury and had trained just one day.

“It’s a way of showing trust in him (Lewis-Skelly) to continue to do how he’s doing, and Ricky now has to earn his place in the team.

“He played some very good minutes as well when he came on, he had one training session. Now, everybody is in contention and with the games we have, for sure everybody is going to play.”

Calafiori or Lewis-Skelly – who should start for Arsenal vs Ipswich?

Arsenal face Ipswich Town on Friday night in the Premier League.

The Gunners will definitely go into the game as the favourites, but Arteta has a big decision to make at left-back – does he start Calafiori or continue with Lewis-Skelly?

Calafiori, who Arsenal signed in a £38 million deal in the summer, has to be the first-choice, but because he has only just returned from his injury, we don’t see why shouldn’t be eased back in.

Arteta has tough games against Brentford and Brighton coming up – Calafiori’s quality in possession and defensive ability will be a necessity against those two sides.

So, we think Arteta should continue with Lewis-Skelly at left-back against Ipswich. He certainly deserves to keep his place after his recent performances.