{"id":31366,"date":"2026-05-30T15:50:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T15:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/30\/myles-lewis-skelly-the-rise-and-the-return\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T15:50:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T15:50:19","slug":"myles-lewis-skelly-the-rise-and-the-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trendifyhubusa.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/30\/myles-lewis-skelly-the-rise-and-the-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Myles Lewis-Skelly, the rise and the return"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\u201cIt\u2019s where he belongs,\u201d Grant Cornock says, smiling. \u201cI messaged him after the game and said exactly that: \u2018That\u2019s your level, this is what you\u2019re capable of\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cornock is talking about Myles Lewis-Skelly leaving Arsenal\u2019s pitch to a standing ovation in a Champions League semi-final three weeks ago. Or, to put it another way, the holder of the Year 7 shot put record at Aldenham School, in Hertfordshire, turning it on against Atletico Madrid in central midfield before winning the Premier League title.<\/p>\n

\u201cMyles threw the shot 11 metres 75cm (aged 11),\u201d adds Cornock, who is the director of sport at Aldenham and a former professional with Watford. \u201cAt sports day last year, the kids were pleased with themselves throwing 8-9 metres. So there was some serious strength there.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are plenty of stories that Cornock can tell about Lewis-Skelly\u2019s athletic prowess, including the time when he walked into the gymnasium on a sport scholarship assessment day and his jaw dropped at the sight of a primary school pupil hanging onto a basketball hoop.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen you suddenly realise, wait a minute, this kid isn\u2019t just a very good footballer, he is a specimen at 10 years old!\u201d Cornock says, laughing.<\/p>\n

Cornock is not just a voice from Lewis-Skelly\u2019s past. Part of a select group of people invited to the Emirates Stadium last summer to celebrate Lewis-Skelly signing a five-year contract<\/a> with the club he grew up supporting, Cornock takes much more than a passing interest in the teenager\u2019s football career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve said to Myles this season, if it wasn\u2019t for what happened last year, if he hadn\u2019t played for England, if he hadn\u2019t made 30-odd appearances, and he\u2019d then had this season, he\u2019d probably be very happy sitting on the bench. But when you get put up there and everyone talks about you, and the crowd sing your name, it\u2019s hard to have that comedown.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Grant Cornock with Lewis-Skelly last summer at his contract signing (Credit: Grant Cornock)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The point that Cornock is making is that it\u2019s easy to forget that Lewis-Skelly is still only 19 years old.<\/p>\n

A whirlwind breakthrough season<\/a>, including a goalscoring debut for England in March last year and a performance of remarkable maturity against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in the Champions League quarter-final the following month, propelled him into the spotlight.<\/p>\n

By the end of that campaign, Lewis-Skelly had played 39 times for Arsenal, won four England caps and was nominated for the PFA Young Player of the Year award. All the while, he had been playing out of position at left-back.<\/p>\n

The season that followed has been far more challenging \u2014 as it often is for young players. Despite featuring regularly in cup competitions, Lewis-Skelly started only one Premier League game up until April and lost his place in the England squad as a result. The fallout on social media and beyond was predictable.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the comments: \u2018He\u2019s not good enough, that\u2019s why he\u2019s not being played centre midfield.\u2019 \u2018We bought a better left-back now.\u2019 Whether he reads it or not, I don\u2019t know. You hope they don\u2019t,\u201d Cornock adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if you\u2019re not playing and you\u2019re sitting on the side every week with 60,000 Arsenal fans behind you, and all you want to do is play, it\u2019s hard not to take it personally, isn\u2019t it? \u2018I wanna be on that pitch, I\u2019m not getting on.\u2019<\/em> How do you cope with that?<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s why I was really pleased to hear what Declan Rice said. For him to say that the manager has been tough on Myles \u2014 not many people say something like that. So for Myles to be able to cope with that, and to not sink at those times when he wasn\u2019t playing, and then also to come back in and play as well as he did, it speaks volumes of his unbelievable ability, obviously, but his mentality as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fulham at home earlier this month feels like a watershed moment for him. It wasn\u2019t so much that Lewis-Skelly was named in the team; it was more that he was starting a match for the first time in centre midfield \u2014 the position where he excelled as a youth player for club and country. Arsenal beat Fulham 3-0 and Lewis-Skelly was superb.<\/p>\n

If that was a bold call on Mikel Arteta\u2019s part, an even bigger decision followed three days later. Against Atletico Madrid at home, and with a place in the Champions League final at stake, Arteta picked Lewis-Skelly in midfield ahead of Martin Zubimendi for a second time. It was a huge show of faith from the manager.<\/p>\n

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\n Arteta with Lewis-Skelly after the controversial win at West Ham (John Walton\/PA Images via Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Steve Morrow, who played for Arsenal from 1992 to 1997, got to know Lewis-Skelly and his family well during his time as head of academy recruitment at the club.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s one of the qualities of Mikel as a leader and as a coach that people often overlook, or don\u2019t give him enough credit for \u2014 he is brave in his decision-making and he goes with his gut,\u201d Morrow says. \u201cAnd the decision was justified too, because there were two or three great performances from Myles in what I consider to be his more natural position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those games against Fulham and Atletico Madrid have turned around Lewis-Skelly\u2019s season, and maybe even his Arsenal career. From being third-choice left-back and potentially available for transfer this summer, Lewis-Skelly is now firmly in the conversation to start in midfield against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final on Saturday.<\/p>\n

More than anything, though, he looks like the player that people on the inside at Arsenal always thought he would be.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cLewis-Skelly is a cheat code.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

It was September 2022 when Arsenal\u2019s Academy posted that line on social media under a 36-second clip from an under-18 game against Norwich City. The footage shows a 15-year-old boy receiving a pass deep inside his own half, leaving a trail of opponents in his wake as he drives with the ball\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 right through the middle of the pitch,\u201d Morrow interjects.<\/p>\n

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Lewis-Skelly is a cheat code \ud83d\ude05#AFCU18<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/2r5G6BebRr<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Arsenal Academy (@ArsenalAcademy) September 21, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Although Morrow had already left Arsenal to take a job with the English Football Association when that Norwich game took place almost four years ago, the passage of play that we are talking about is one that he has seen a hundred times before with Lewis-Skelly.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou always look for one or two outstanding qualities with young players, and one of those with Myles was \u2014 and you see it today \u2014 being able to receive the ball on the half-turn, being able to look forward and drive forward in those first five or 10 metres, and that was just such a noticeable part of his game at a young age,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Morrow smiles when reminded of a conversation that he had years ago at an international youth tournament in Portugal with a senior figure who was working for a rival Premier League club and who has never forgotten the conviction in the Northern Irishman\u2019s voice when he said that Lewis-Skelly would \u201cbe the one\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could just see special talent in him between the age of 12 and 14, and I knew that he was going to go the distance,\u201d Morrow adds.<\/p>\n

He also knew, drawing on his past experience with young players, that there would be a bump in the road somewhere along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not really a surprise,\u201d Morrow says, reflecting on what\u2019s happened this season. \u201cI think what was a surprise was how well he did consistently over a long period of time coming in at left-back, performing at such a high level and being the outstanding player in big games. That\u2019s unusual in itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what\u2019s normal is to be in and out of the team as a young player, and that has happened this year. You also have to remember that there has been tremendous competition in the left-back spot at Arsenal this season \u2014 (Piero) Hincapie has moved there after playing more as a left-sided centre back, and there\u2019s (Riccardo) Calafiori too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last summer was challenging for Lewis-Skelly. He didn\u2019t have a particularly good pre-season, it took time for him to build a relationship with Gabriel Heinze, who joined as Arsenal\u2019s first-team coach in July, and Hincapie\u2019s arrival from Bayer Leverkusen ended up complicating things at left-back.<\/p>\n

There were still moments of promise \u2014 the superb assist for Gabriel Martinelli in a 4-0 win over Atletico Madrid in the Champions League in October \u2014 but also times when Lewis-Skelly looked exposed at left-back.<\/p>\n

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\n Lewis-Skelly set up Martinelli against Atletico in October (Stuart MacFarlane\/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Arteta\u2019s own assessment was interesting when he spoke earlier this month. \u201cHe goes to the national team, comes back from pre-season and starts to realise that maybe he\u2019s not going to be a starter,\u201d the Arsenal manager said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you need to go through those emotions, not only you but the people next to you as well. You have to navigate through that, and that\u2019s not easy. I understand that. It\u2019s easy when it\u2019s going so well for you, but when it goes the other way, the temptation is going to be to start pointing at people.\u201d<\/p>\n

How much Lewis-Skelly did that as opposed to looking at himself \u2014 a difficult balancing act for any player when they lose their place and search for the reasons why \u2014 would be fascinating to know. It\u2019s quite possible that the answer is written down in black and white somewhere, given that journaling is one of the psychological skills that Lewis-Skelly\u2019s mum has instilled in him from a young age.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Arteta said that it took three or four conversations with Lewis-Skelly before the penny dropped and he took on board the manager\u2019s reasons for him not playing so much this season. \u201cI think he realised: If it\u2019s not this way, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to happen<\/em>,\u201d Arteta said.<\/p>\n

That probably fits the popular perception of Lewis-Skelly as someone who is not short of self-belief \u2014 an opinion formed in part by the way in which he celebrated scoring Arsenal\u2019s third goal against Manchester City in a 5-1 win at the Emirates last season, when he mimicked Erling Haaland\u2019s meditation pose.<\/p>\n

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\n Lewis-Skelly after scoring against City in February 2025 (Alex Pantling\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Yet that\u2019s not how Lewis-Skelly comes across when you speak to people who have been on the journey with him. It\u2019s fascinating, for example, to hear Ryan Garry, who worked with Lewis-Skelly at Arsenal\u2019s academy and was also his coach with England at youth level, talk about how he \u201cfound Myles to be very serious about his game\u201d and too hard on himself at times.<\/p>\n

At one stage, Garry decided to speak to Lewis-Skelly about \u201cshifting his mindset on failure\u201d and learning to occasionally embrace it. \u201cThat trait of really holding himself to a higher account was there, and sometimes it could tip over the edge,\u201d Garry says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn\u2019t come from a bad place. He\u2019s wanting to be the best, but it was about allowing him the space to develop and understand that there\u2019s going to be moments in a game of football where you\u2019re going to make a mistake. So you might as well think: \u2018What do you do on the next action?\u2019, instead of really going to town on the why and the how of the previous mistake. There\u2019s going to be a time for that afterwards. And when he started to work on that, you could see his emotional control was better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

The comparison that Lee Dixon makes is striking.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s alright being strong, but there\u2019s a million strong kids out there,\u201d says the former Arsenal and England full-back. \u201cIt\u2019s not about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve watched Myles a lot \u2014 he\u2019s very Gazza-like in the way that he uses his weight and his strength. He almost allows players to catch up with him. He\u2019ll go past them and then he slows down a little bit. Gazza used to do that so that when they come in and make contact again, he bounces them off him.<\/p>\n

\u201cMyles will win free kicks by doing that and he will also get himself in positions higher up the pitch, so it\u2019s a brilliant skill to have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paul Gascoigne, or Gazza, was one of the most gifted footballers of his generation and played a starring role for England at the 1990 World Cup. As well as being a brilliant technical player, Gascoigne was exceptionally difficult to knock off the ball.<\/p>\n

With Lewis-Skelly, that strength and power have been there from day one. Or, at least since, he picked up the shot put at Aldenham School and they went in search of a longer tape measure.<\/p>\n

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\n Lewis-Skelly playing for Arsenal U12s in 2018 (Stuart MacFarlane\/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Occasionally, he will get caught on the ball because of the way in which he uses his body to almost encourage contact when receiving. But more often than not, that kind of move leads to Lewis-Skelly rolling away from his marker, escaping pressure and driving forward.<\/p>\n

Morrow nods. \u201cHe\u2019s got such a special quality of being able to protect the ball and making it so difficult for opponents to get it off him. As he gets more experienced, he\u2019ll do that (use his body) even more and he\u2019ll hang on to the ball even more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cornock feels similarly about Lewis-Skelly\u2019s passing, in particular the way in which he can take opponents out of the game by rapping the ball into team-mates with a mixture of speed and disguise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think people will even recognise it yet \u2014 his passing ability is genuinely world-class because he breaks lines,\u201d Cornock says. \u201cThe pace of his pass is at that level. He\u2019s also playing with good players now. When he was at school, I had to actually say to him sometimes: \u2018Myles, you can\u2019t pass it that hard because these kids can\u2019t control it!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that ability to break a line when the other team\u2019s sat in a mid-block or a low block is a massive difference-maker. And the more he plays there, the more confidence he\u2019ll get, and the more risks he will take in the right areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

It makes you wonder what might have happened had Arteta given Lewis-Skelly an opportunity to play in midfield before \u2014 something that was planned in an FA Cup tie against Wigan Athletic in February, only for Calafiori to pick up an injury in the warm-up.<\/p>\n

In the end, it was a combination of Zubimendi\u2019s fatigue and loss of form that opened the door for Lewis-Skelly, who had been playing in midfield in training for several months, to show what he could do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t say I was surprised because I think I knew he could do it,\u201d Dixon adds. \u201cI think it was an opportunity born out of Mikel needing something, and he got it in bucketloads. I thought Myles was brilliant. His control, his awareness of players around him \u2014 he was my man of the match, and possibly in both games.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was too late for Lewis-Skelly to force his way back into the England squad for the World Cup \u2014 Dixon thinks another five games in midfield would have strengthened his case \u2014 but there\u2019s every chance that he\u2019s timed his run perfectly for the Champions League final.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big call,\u201d Dixon says. \u201cBut I\u2019d probably play Myles. I think he\u2019s already shown enough not to be fazed by that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n