Arteta's five-year Lewis-Skelly plan pays out in gold

Teenage star's precocious talent and fearless nature justifies the hype in breakthrough season

- SIMON COLLINGS

Myles Lewis-Skelly has announced himself as one of the Premier League's most exciting talents in recent weeks, but Mikel Arteta has been aware of the talented teenager since his first week as Arsenal manager back in December 2019. Arteta had heard murmurings about Lewis-Skelly - and his best friend Ethan Nwaneri - before he was hired.

The word was that Arsenal had two future stars on their hands and the hype around them was growing every year.

At the age of 11, agents were contacting LewisSkelly's family. Twelve months later, he was being offered boot deals. And so, once he was in post, one of Arteta's first jobs was to summon Arsenal's then Under-16 head coach Dan Micciche to his office to see what all the fuss was about.

"I got asked to go and see him, and he wanted to know about them," Micciche tells Standard Sport. "Not many managers in their first week of a job would say: 'Can you get me video clips of them?' He had heard their names, so he just wanted some more detail. We put together videos and montages. The analysts did a great job."

'Never afraid of no one' Lewis-Skelly introduced himself by making his senior debut at Manchester City in September, but it was in the reverse fixture this month that he really announced his arrival. After scoring his first goal for Arsenal in a 5-1 win, the 18-year-old mimicked the celebration of Manchester City striker Erling Haaland by crossing his legs and pretending to meditate next to the corner flag.

Five months earlier, Lewis-Skelly had squared up to Haaland just moments after coming on for his debut. Haaland swiftly asked: "Who the f*** are you?" Well, he knows who Lewis-Skelly is now.