Arsenal teenager in Premier League Team of the Week | OneFootball

Myles Lewis-Skelly has been named in WhoScored’s Premier League Team of the Week after receiving praise from Mikel Arteta and Declan Rice on Friday.

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Arsenal academy graduate Myles Lewis-Skelly made his third consecutive Premier League start for the Gunners against Ipswich Town on Friday night, starting at left-back despite plenty of more senior alternatives on the bench.

Kieran Tierney, Riccardo Calafiori, Oleksandr Zinchenko, and Jakub Kiwior have all played left-back for Arsenal in the past, and all of them made the list of substitutes on Friday. Yet Lewis-Skelly completed the full 90 minutes as Mikel Arteta’s side kept a clean sheet to win 1-0.

Those minutes were no token gesture either, with the player proving one of Arsenal’s star players on the night.

Lewis-Skelly even made WhoScored’s Team of the Week, with Sam Hammond highlighting that the youngster misplaced just one of 59 passes, created two chances, completed two dribbles, three tackles, and made two clearances.

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Arteta had plenty of praise for the 18-year-old after the game, suggesting the youngster is ahead of schedule in his development.

“He is a special character,” Arteta said afterwards (via BBC Sport). “He is well ahead of his age and then he has qualities where he adapts to the way that we are playing.

“Theory is one thing, but competing at this level is another. Credit to him.”

Declan Rice also singled out the teenager for credit after the match, saying: “He can go to the top, this kid is just special, very special. For an 18-year-old to be that good, that comfortable, that strong – it was like he was built in a lab!”

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“I said that to him the other day, it’s just ridiculous how good he is, but he has a long way to go,” Rice continued. “He’s so level-headed, he’s got a great family around him, I know his mum looks after him really well and all the boys at the training ground do too.

“We have a really good crop of youngsters coming through and he can be what he wants to be, he just needs to stay focused and always want more and he can do that.”

Lewis-Skelly will have a fight on his hands to keep his place now, as Calafiori and the rest get back to full fitness. But it looks like he’s up for it.