Eyebrows were raised when Arsenal brought in George Lewis last summer and the winger hasn’t had the best of luck so far during his first season at the club.
Lewis started off very well following his shock move, scoring for the U23s in a friendly against Tottenham Hotspur before also finding the net against Ipswich Town in the EFL Trophy.
Since then, however, matters have taken a turn for the worse. Lewis endured a spell out of the side because of injury and has been unable to win his place in the side back since he returned.
The arrival of Nikolaj Moller, who often links up in attack with Folarin Balogun, has meant that Arsenal often play a 4-4-2 system, with Balogun drifting out to the left. Steve Bould has occasionally used Balogun as a winger, while midfielders such as Ben Cottrell have also been deployed on the left flank.
Another problem for Lewis is that he has seemingly been overtaken in the pecking order by Kido Taylor-Hart, with the 18-year-old having had some excellent cameo appearances for the U23s recently.
Lewis still has time on his side as it seems likely that Arsenal will give him until the end of next season to fully prove himself, but the situation isn’t looking particularly good for the 20-year-old at present.
For the recent U23 game against Chelsea, Lewis was left out of the squad altogether, and he has work to do if he is to get back into Bould’s plans for the rest of the season.
A player who is fast and skilful, Lewis must now show that he is able to get out of this difficult situation.
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Jeorge Bird is the author of www.arsenalyouth.wordpress.com Follow him on Twitter @jeorgebird
Hope he does well but not all our youngsters will be at the required level. For people doubting his age, some players just bloom later. Maybe a loan spell would do him good.
He was a starter previously till he was injured. Plus what happens when salah comes back, something has to give. Does it make sense to send back these talented players to u18s? I don’t fancy being the coach rn.lots of competition for those places.
For a minute I wondered what Mohammad Salah’s coming and going had to do with Arsenal U23. 😁
Cue for “Mom can we have…” meme
Taylor-Hart’s is out of contract in the summer, he’s a real talent and hopefully we can get him signed up, a bit like the Balogun situation.