Myles Lewis-Skelly: Arsenal’s midfielder-turned-left-back primed to step up for England after rapid rise | Football News

It is only six months since Myles Lewis-Skelly made his Arsenal debut against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium and, in colourful language, Erling Haaland wondered out loud who he was.

The teenager left Haaland in no doubt when he mimicked the striker’s celebration after scoring his first Arsenal goal in the return game at the Emirates Stadium in early February. Now, another milestone has come in the form of an England debut – and the first goal of the Thomas Tuchel era.

Tuchel was in two minds about including him on account of his age. “I can understand it feels like we are fast-forwarding a career that is already on a fast pace,” he said last week. In the end, though, the “quality and maturity” demonstrated with Arsenal won out. Tuchel felt he couldn’t ignore him.

The circumstances worked in his favour too, of course. Lewis Hall’s injury had deprived Tuchel of another left-footed option at left-back. But Lewis-Skelly is not there to make up the numbers. The academy graduate did not need long to establish himself as Arsenal’s first-choice left-back. He will hope to repeat the feat internationally.

Not that his Arsenal emergence has been entirely smooth. Lewis-Skelly has received two red cards amid his assured displays. The first of them, against Wolves, was rescinded, but he was lucky not to be shown another in the 7-1 win over PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League.

Those moments of rashness were reminders of his age. Lewis-Skelly only turned 18 in September. He will become England’s 11th-youngest player if he appears in the World Cup Qualifier against Albania on Friday. But they have not discouraged Mikel Arteta from using him and Tuchel has not been deterred either.

Arteta described his close shave against PSV as a “lesson” after the game. “The line is really thin in sport and he needs to understand that.” But when asked if he expected the youngster to learn from it, his answer was an emphatic yes. “He is very intelligent.”

It is an assessment which rings true to those who worked with Lewis-Skelly in Arsenal’s Hale End academy, where he rose through the ranks alongside close friend and team-mate Ethan Nwaneri, and where, like Nwaneri, he was viewed as a potential first-teamer long before his breakthrough this season.

“I don’t think people fully realise what an intelligent player he is,” Alex Nichols, his former coach at U12, U14 and U15 level, tells Sky Sports. “He has phenomenal physical and technical capabilities. He is so strong for a young man, which has always been a big development point of his.

“But he has the intelligence to match. There are so many players in the academy system who are physically and technically so capable, but his ability to learn and his coachability set him apart.”

Those qualities have underpinned his adaptation to playing left-back at first-team level. Lewis-Skelly was used primarily as a No 6 in Arsenal’s academy but he has embraced the challenge of learning a new role. Watching him now, it is remarkable to think he had never previously played there.

“He has taken a lot in his stride,” says Nichols. “He is a brilliant personality, very lively, but he also has a very calm approach to challenges and a quiet self-assuredness that comes naturally to him.

“I think that has helped him show the best of himself but it’s testament to his intelligence that he has been able to adapt to a level which is so physically, technically and tactically demanding.”

Tuchel will have noted that Lewis-Skelly has not looked out of place in any of those departments at Arsenal. Indeed, the maturity cited by the England boss when explaining his call-up last week is just one aspect of his appeal. On and off the ball, he has lots to offer.

Firstly, there is the technical ability that allows him to thrive in small spaces. Lewis-Skelly’s midfield schooling can be seen in how he handles himself in central zones when tucking inside, into areas where opposition players snap at the heels, and time and space are typically at a premium. Lewis-Skelly relishes those conditions.

There was a rare lapse when he lost out to Mohammed Kudus before his red card in Arsenal’s defeat to West Ham last month, but Opta data shows he has the highest accuracy rate in the Premier League for passes made with an opposing player applying pressure within a three-metre radius, at 93.2 per cent.

It remains to be seen whether Tuchel will regularly try to harness his resistance to pressure by asking him to move inside in possession, as Arteta has. The England boss might even prefer to use him as a wing-back given his history for using a back three. But Lewis-Skelly is comfortable with the more traditional aspects of his role too.

He has excelled defensively for Arsenal, demonstrating impressive one-on-one ability and holding his own against a list of right-sided forwards which includes Phil Foden and Dejan Kulusevski.

The statistics underline his effectiveness. Lewis-Skelly’s duel success rate puts him second among Premier League players this season, just ahead of even Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk.

Amazingly, despite being new to the Premier League and playing in an unfamiliar position, Lewis-Skelly is yet to be dribbled past in his 14 appearances in the competition so far this season.

Any suggestion that the cards he has received are indicative of a disciplinary problem are dismissed by those who know him best. It is also worth noting he has only actually made 14 fouls across his 26 senior appearances. There is, though, an acknowledgement that he has an edge to his game. The challenge for his coaches is to hone it rather than eradicate it.

“I would challenge you to find any outstanding and dominant young player like Myles who doesn’t push the limits and the boundaries sometimes,” says Nichols. “The best young players do that.

“It is all part of the learning process. Like any 18-year-old playing in the Premier League, he is still learning. What is important is that he has that willingness to learn. That is what is now helping him continue to develop, as he did throughout his time in the academy.”

His England call-up is a source of pride to coaches old and new at Arsenal. It is extraordinary to think a player who was still playing for his club’s U21s as recently as October has earned a senior England bow only a few months later.

If his breakthrough at club level is anything to go by, he will take the challenge in his stride.