Mikel Arteta has praised the fearless attitude of one of Arsenal’s most exciting young players Myles Lewis-Skelly.
The teenager’s emergence has been, in part, overshadowed by the progress made by fellow Hale End Academy graduate Ethan Nwaneri, but the 17-year-old appears to have just as good a chance of making it in the first team as his teammate.
Eyebrows were raised on Sunday when in the midst of a deepening defensive injury crisis, Arteta summoned Lewis-Skelly from the bench and tasked him with the daunting job of marking Mohamed Salah.
Although the youngster was partially at fault for the goal which saw the Gunners squander the lead for the second time in the game, Lewis-Skelly emerged with immense credit, showing remarkable composure on the ball and bravery in possession.
Speaking ahead of tonight’s Carabao Cup tie against Preston, Arteta was asked what had impressed him most about Lewis-Skelly and he said: ‘First of all, a huge personality.
‘He doesn’t care, he plays with full belief, with a lot of commitment, he’s got the qualities that we want in his position, to play outside, to play inside.
‘Defensively, he’s a really strong player and where we want him. When a player is like this, I don’t care if he’s from the academy or whatever, we need to give him the opportunities and he’s earned the right to play those games.’
Arteta’s faith in Lewis-Skelly has, it seems, resulted in Oleksandr Zinchenko falling even further down the pecking order.
The Ukraine international had a transformative effect on the side when he joined from Manchester City two years ago, but it appears Arsenal have now evolved to a point where his skillset is no longer required.
‘Those decisions are always difficult to make,’ said Arteta when asked about Zinchenko’s lack of opportunities.
‘You make them with the only intention to get the result with the performance that you want, but Alex has already proven for many years something that he has to do and that he has the ability to do it.’
Another experienced left-back, meanwhile, is closing in on making his first team return with Kieran Tierney, who spent last season on loan at Real Sociedad, stepping up his recovery from the hamstring injury he suffered playing for Scotland at Euro 2024.
‘I think he’s quite close,’ said Arteta. ‘He’s looking really good. I think he’s over the period where he was still struggling, so he looks really sharp out there.
‘He hasn’t trained with the team yet but hopefully he can do that in the next week or two.’
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