One of Arteta’s best Arsenal signings faces the chop

Sitting to the side of the Bernabeu during Arsenal’s triumphant night inside the Bernabeu last season, Rio Ferdinand was left in awe of an 18-year-old strutting his stuff.

“I’m sorry, is Lewis-Skelly really 18? His date of birth is right, isn’t it?”

It’s a fair question to ask. Myles Lewis-Skelly made enormous strides during the 2024/25 campaign. At the start of he was playing U21 football. By the end of it he was nominated for PFA Young Player of the Year, was a full England international and had helped guide Mikel Arteta’s team to the semi-finals of the Champions League.

Not bad at all, is it? While Ethan Nwaneri and Max Dowman continue to be spoken about as generational talents, the most complete Hale Ender we’ve seen in years is Lewis-Skelly.

However, is everything now starting to unravel? It’s been a difficult campaign for the teenager to date.

Why Lewis-Skelly has struggled for game time at Arsenal

Arsenal’s injury problems last term were well-documented. To the benefit of Lewis-Skelly, Oleksandr Zinchenko could barely get a game and Riccardo Calafiori spent more time on the treatment table than on the field of play.

Such a sequence of events meant that even Kieran Tierney enjoyed something of a career revival at the Emirates Stadium.

For Lewis-Skelly, however, he was the biggest winner of Arsenal’s lack of depth throughout 2024/25. He enjoyed a phenomenal season as a result, featuring on 39 occasions for the senior team, assisting two goals and scoring that strike against Manchester City.

The celebration summed up everything the Hale Ender is about. He’s a jovial, unique and confident character. He’s certainly cemented himself as one of the finest young players on the planet.

2025/26 has been more challenging. Now 19, he is yet to start in the Premier League and has enjoyed just 86 minutes of top-flight action.

While the Champions League has seen the teenager start twice, he missed out on a spot in the starting XI last week when summer arrival Piero Hincapie was selected ahead of him in Prague.

There are several reasons for his lack of action, not least Calafiori’s improved fitness but also from a tactical point of view. There is a feeling that the Italian’s defensive discipline is stronger, while Hincapie’s overlapping ability, more aligned with the inverted Leandro Trossard’s skillset, is perhaps a stronger dynamic.

While Arteta is right to manage the youngster’s minutes, it did set off alarm bells, not just among supporters but also England boss Thomas Tuchel.

Lewis-Skelly has been a regular feature in Tuchel’s squads since he was given the Three Lions gig and the full-back even scored on his international debut towards the beginning of the year.

But, the German made it abundantly clear that he needed more minutes during October’s break. “Being a good citizen isn’t enough,” he warned the teen.

Lo and behold, he was left out of the fixtures for the November break. Tuchel stated that “Myles simply needs more starts, more minutes.”

Such news sparked fear regarding the academy graduate’s future at Arsenal. Sky Sports reported this week that he was being monitored by Premier League clubs, although the Gunners are not keen on selling anyone in the January transfer window.

Lewis-Skelly is still young but there may well be another figure in the defensive ranks growing more concerned about what the future holds.

£50m signing should be worried about his Arsenal future

Cast your mind back to the beginning of Arteta’s tenure in north London. The defensive ranks were not pretty at all.

Who can forget that day in August 2021 when Manchester City beat the Gunners 5-0? Their back five that day included Cedric, Rob Holding, Calum Chambers, Sead Kolasinac and Kieran Tierney.

How far they have come since. Arsenal now boast the best defence in the league having shipped just five goals. William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes are easily the best centre-back partnership in the division, while they arguably have the two best full-backs in the form of Jurrien Timber and Calafiori.

All of that means that a certain Ben White has endured quite the downfall at Arsenal, not necessarily due to his own faults but the north Londoners have simply improved significantly.

A big issue for White has been his fitness. Last season he missed a large portion due to injury which meant he only started 13 league fixtures.

This term, while he has improved his fitness and fought hard to put himself back in the reckoning, Arteta has preferred Timber. Understandably so, too.

The Dutchman has cemented his spot and in the words of the Standard’s Simon Collings, he is “the best right-back in the Premier League right now.” There is no escaping that for White, and his lack of game time proves it.

The full-back started the win over Manchester United on the opening weekend of the season but since then he has not played a single minute of Premier League football.

He has been an unused sub on eight occasions and is struggling to earn minutes in any other competition as well. The 28-year-old has just 82 minutes of Champions League football under his belt and while he has started the League Cup wins over Port Vale and Brighton, has only managed the best part of 70 minutes in both of those games.

When White signed in a £50m deal from Brighton back in 2021, journalist Tom Barclay wrote that the Gunners had acquired “one of the best prospects in English football.”

That much was certainly true. Despite his price tag, he proved to be an inspired pick-up, perhaps one of Arteta’s best since becoming Arsenal manager.

Signed as a centre-half, he quickly became the number one choice at right-back and was an England regular for a period of time under Gareth Southgate until that alleged fallout.

He only missed one league game during his debut year at the Emirates, played 46 matches the following season and then reached over half a century of appearances in 2023/24. Indeed, in the words of one content creator, he was Arsenal’s “most reliable player.”

Not just a rock-solid defender, he had attacking quality in abundance, registering 16 goal involvements between 2022/23 and 2023/24. His link-up and combination play with star man, Bukayo Saka, was a huge weapon for Arsenal.

Now, however, he’s made to settle for a place on the bench and unlike Lewis-Skelly, he doesn’t really have time on his side.

Linked with Manchester City in recent weeks, Arsenal may not want to get rid, but it would not be a surprise if White forced Arteta’s hand next summer if he continues to be omitted from the starting lineup.