Mikel Arteta says Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly will get game time this season, if they keep showing their quality.
The teenagers, along with defender Ayden Heaven, have played regularly throughout pre-season and stand on the cusp of formal inclusion in Mikel Arteta’s senior squad as Arsenal gear up for their first game of the new campaign.
After yesterday’s impressive 4-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen at Emirates Stadium, the manager said: “If they continue like they are doing right now. There is no difference whether they come from the academy or we sign them from Germany or Argentina or Italy.
“If they are showing the quality that they have, the personality they have to play at this level…let’s see. Why would we put any restrictions? If they deserve minutes, they get minutes.”
Arteta was seen deep in conversation with Lewis-Skelly at full-time, seemingly passing on further pointers to the 17-year-old as he continues to grow into the left-back role he’s been auditioning for in recent weeks.
“There were a few actions that he did really well, a few he has to understand a bit better – especially the focus and attention these games demand. He really wants it,” said Arteta.
With Takehiro Tomiyasu injured, Riccardo Calafiori acclimatising to his new surroundings and doubts over Jakub Kiwior’s future, it looks as though Oleksandr Zinchenko could start the campaign at left-back.
“Obviously he has played in midfield, but the main focus for him right now is playing as a full back and the options and solutions he provides in that part,” added Arteta.
“He knows the quality that he has, he knows the things he needs to improve. He’s another one that is really at it.”
One of the coolest things about Nwaneri’s rise to the first team squad (and there are many) is that we can sell a player like Smith Rowe and just not need to go into the market.
You’d be paying around 30-40m for a good, young midfielder that can take minutes from first XI players. But we get this guy for free!
My hot take – Nwaneri will take souls at this club. I think he might have already taken ESR’s. And I believe he will take Vieira’s this season too.
I also think (since you guys are always asking for my opinion) that there will be plenty of minutes for these two. I think an ongoing strategy of Arteta’s is to try and put the game to bed in the first half. We saw it last night. In the first fifteen minutes we sucker punched a flailing opponent repeatedly and, by half time, the game was over as a competition. We have the personnel and the dynamism to kill off opponents very quickly, a little like the invincibles used to do, and then settle into some slower passing routines. I… Read more »
Johnny what else do you think?
Thanks for asking! So I was thinking this while I lay in bed last night… The thing that people forget is we lost the league last season in the first half of the season. And we dropped points because Havertz and Rice weren’t quite settled in yet. We had £160m worth of talent to assimilate and teach a whole new system to. Havertz took longer but even Rice looked a bit shaky for the first six weeks. This season we don’t have that struggle. The first XI is good to go. They don’t need to learn a system and settle… Read more »
Johnny, what more do you think?
Tell me more, tell me more
Believe me, you guys aren’t the only ones desperate for my opinions.
Andrew keeps emailing me, “Come on the podcast, come on the podcast” and I’m all like “Firstly, I’ve told you a thousand times to go through my agent. And secondly, you can throw as many Euros as you want at me. But I only get paid in bitcoin and pussy”.
I like turtles
They should call you Johnny 4 chattes.
😉🇫🇷
Tune in same time, next week, for another episode of
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That is gross and disgusting. Smelly things between legs yuck. Get out of your brainwashed media mind and realise there is nothing but piss and poop in there and u acting like there’s some gold dust there stupid idiot wake up or I come there and slap your face so hard
if you find poop in there mate, I would get that checked out
You really think so?
The thing about “we lost the league” because of a slow start. Weren’t we first at Christmas? And ten days or so later we began an incredible run of 15-1-1. So, I guess “we lost the league” in the last week of December. The truth is, we never “lost” the league in the sense that we played badly for a serious length of time or lost our nerve or seemed without direction–or any other easy description. We lost the league (as Liverpool did before us) because Man City *regularly* do things that in the past would be considered once-in-a-million seasons.… Read more »
Except the Invincibles were all about superior fitness and endurance and grinding the opposition to death. They’d play one touch, possession football at a killer pace for 70 minutes, then Wenger would bring on three subs and the pace of our game would go up by 10%. You could see the abject horror on the faces of the other team (who were usually dying on their arses by then) as they realised just how outclassed they *really* were. Of course, against lesser teams the game would probably be dead well before that, but we’d still do it because that’s the… Read more »
Arteta knows.
We don’t.
So this really is a cult then…
Anyone who hires professional pickpockets is definitely also the seneschal of at least one secret cult.
You really do get a bit of everything on these threads, from an unexpectedly delightful usage of a long-neglected word, to smelly groins filled with poop and piss.
❤️ And a whole lot of love ❤️
I saw on the rumour mill that sociedad are in for Tierney – that makes sense, and maybe that is why the Merino deal is lagging as it may involve a swapsy.. The sale of KT will leave us short at left back with only 6 options (although the good doctor will have something to say about that). Very encouraging that our academy lads are pushing hard for first team minutes this season, it is something that has been lacking a bit recently and we all want to see (albeit understandable given the fine margins in the PL)
It seems Zubimendi is now going to Liverpool which makes me extremely as angry. I’m hoping the delay with Merino is that we are now switching our attention back to try for him again
Yeah I saw that, bit of an odd one eh.. We’ve been linked with him a million times, but it seemed he was adamant that he wants to stay in Spain. Now Liverpool get linked once and he’s joining within a day of the links – very odd!
Maybe we weren’t as keen on him as the blurb suggested?
The insider account I follow says it’s because he idolizes Xabi Alonso. Last season he wanted to wait for Xabi to go to Madrid or Barca and follow him there. He also likes a Liverpool better than he liked us because Xabi used to play there and he wants to be just like him. This is the weird stuff of football transfers we know goes on but are seldom privy to.
I am going to place him in the same category as the stalker of Alan partridge who has a tattoo of partridge on his chest. Zubimendi is a mentalist who sits at home wearing a Xavi Alonso mask, you heard it here first
I wonder if he knows he could actually get Xabi’s number and meet him in real life if he wanted to
That’s interesting but also sounds rather far fetched. I bet it’s because of a more logical reason, like him noting that we already have a player who’s surname starts with a Z (Zinchenko) and refusing to share that letter with anyone. Imagine a club with two players whose names start with a Z, that would be utterly zilly and make zero zense.
That would be over ZZ Top.
Fun fact about ZZ Top – the only member of the band without a beard was called Frank Beard
That is indeed a fun fact. And as they say a beard in the name is worth two in the bush.
It’s a good thing preseason matches are keeping us entertained enough that we don’t need to pollute these threads with utter nonsense.
The only thing less attractive than a beard in the bush is Peter Beardsley
Had occasion to play softball with Frank Beard once. He was a pretty good shortstop.
It’s like what they say about Ben White: he’s got legs, and he knows how to use them.
Does that mean we’re utterly Gabrielilly and make Gabrielero Gabrielense?
I zee what you did zerr and it iz clever but also a false equivalenz.
I wouldn’t be so sure about that one. All the stories (BBC etc) say is that Liverpool really like the player and can afford his release clause. So far there’s been nothing about him actually agreeing personal terms, so no different to our interest earlier in the year.
I saw that too, plus the hierarchy at La Real are pushing hard for him to stay another season. This is going to be an interesting one…
If these guys don’t make it, which is still the likest outcome at least we’re plumping them up for nice £30m FFP moves
Playing Lewis-Skelly at LB has been probably the most fascinating choice Mikel has made over pre-season. I can’t recall him ever playing there for our youth sides, feels very similar to the conversion from midfielder to LB Pep and him did with Zinchenko but with a younger and possibly more malleable player.
Hopefully we’re seeing the start of a 2-3 year project, as opposed to him being thrown in to fill a first team gap over pre-season. Fascinated to see if he starts a few games for the U21s at LB under instruction from the first team.
? Ashley Cole…
Cunt?
I thought this was a really nice take from @AcademyScoop. Draws parallels between how MA seems to want to develop Myles and the way he probably intended to use Lisandro Martinez.
https://x.com/academyscoop/status/1821281676426932502?s=46
Thanks for this, good breakdown. I also like the take about the role being a ‘sensible vehicle for his gradual first-team integration’ too. Kinda highlights the way positional requirements have changed/evolved over the past few years.
I just fear the day when MA leaves and all of our inverted fullbacks are forced to outvert
Revert?
I love a good introverted fullback. They’re more thoughtful and like books and classical music.
I was a perverted fullback in my playing days.
Seeing his composure at LB makes me very interested to see him at DM. If MA sees his best role as Lb well he knows best, but he looks like a pure midfielder to me and would love to see him at 6.
What better senior to learn his trade than Zinchenko