Myles Lewis-Skelly‘s first taste of senior international football couldn’t have been much sweeter.
The 18-year-old scored a debut goal against Albania, earned two caps as a starter, and advanced his case to fill a problem position for England after earning a promotion from Thomas Tuchel.
Club managers don’t tend to relish international get-togethers due to the injury risk; the flipside is that they stand to benefit when things go well. Lewis-Skelly may well have levitated back to Arsenal‘s leafy headquarters in Hertfordshire.
Those who have worked with Lewis-Skelly will have been delighted for him, but not surprised by his impact, given his tendency to adapt quickly to new challenges and thrive as the difficulty levels increase.
“[It was] a great moment,” Mikel Arteta said of his goal. “We are all so happy for him.”
Dan Micciche, who was Lewis-Skelly’s head coach for Arsenal U18s, is used to seeing him perform “when it counts”.
“For him to score the goal and take it as he did just highlighted once again his mentality and temperament to deliver on these big occasions,” he tells The i Paper.
Lewis-Skelly’s natural ability and determination were noticeable from an early age.
The same was true of Ethan Nwaneri, who also impressed in the international break with a superb goal for England’s U21s against Portugal. They were both playing regularly for Arsenal’s U18s at just 15.
Best friends since they were six, Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri’s careers have been inextricably linked since the start to the extent that it is almost difficult to talk about one without mentioning the other.
It is rare for two such highly-rated prospects to break through at the same time, after all, particularly at a club the size of Arsenal.
“They were so advanced at their age in all areas: technically, tactically, physically, psychologically,” Micciche, who previously worked with England’s underage groups for four-and-a-half years, recalls.
“If I were to compare them to players from England that I worked with at a similar age, they were at that level if not better.
“Ethan at 15 or 16 was as good as Callum Hudson-Odoi, Phil Foden, Marcus Edwards and Cole Palmer. Myles was equally compared to midfield players who went on to do extremely well like Curtis Jones or Mason Mount.”
At a different point in the conversation, Micciche mentions another former prodigy of English football, Dele Alli, whom he coached at MK Dons.
“He was a different type of player to them but actually more effective in certain areas too,” he says of Lewis-Skelly, the midfielder. “He had a great ability to drive with the ball and had really good ball manipulation skills.”
Indeed, the only element of Lewis-Skelly’s emergence that has caught Micciche off guard is where on the pitch it has come from.
On Monday, Arteta remarked how unusual it is for a young player to score on their senior international debut, “especially a full-back”.
During Micciche’s near four-year spell with the Gunners, Lewis-Skelly “never played there” and was instead a driving force from central midfield.
“It’s also not unusual for this to happen because a lot of the time the best players [at youth level] play through the middle as you want them to get on the ball,” he adds.
“Left-footed young players don’t often break through down the middle. Ethan would never play on the right wing in his formative years because you’re relying on too many variables to get him the ball.
“Myles spends a lot of his time in midfield anyway. If he was just playing at left-back and not allowed to invert and get involved in the game, I don’t think he’d be the same player.”
Lewis-Skelly’s grounding as a midfielder has certainly helped him adjust to an unfamiliar role, where he shuttles infield to help Arsenal overload in the middle. He uses the ball well, playing probing passes through the lines.
And as his goal for England highlighted, he is refining his underlapping runs to become more of a threat in the final third.
“He’s seeing the game from a different perspective,” Micciche says.
“Defensively it’s very different, a lot of one vs one defending against high-level wingers which he wouldn’t have really been exposed to before. [But] he’s learning on the job very well.”
It hasn’t all been sailing. Lewis-Skelly has already been sent off twice in only 26 games for Arsenal, although a controversial dismissal against Wolverhampton Wanderers was later rescinded.
He also attracted criticism from some quarters for mocking Erling Haaland by mimicking his lotus position celebration. “I think it just showed his confidence,” Micciche counters.
Nevertheless, he has made an extremely accomplished start to his career. With positions at left-back and central midfield up for grabs at Arsenal and England, Lewis-Skelly will hope to further solidify his status as a regular starter for Arteta and Tuchel.
There may be more opportunities to play in his favoured position at the Emirates next season, with Jorginho and Thomas Partey both out of contract in the summer.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he does [end up in midfield], but it depends on his form and what Arsenal’s plans are. He’s still so young,” Micciche says. “It’s hard to tell, but nothing he or Ethan does surprises me.”
Regardless of if and where Lewis-Skelly eventually settles in one position or the other, he looks set to be an asset for Arsenal and England for years to come. It has been a fine start, but there are plenty more levels still to unlock.
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