Arsenal: Myles Lewis-Skelly endures toughest night against PSG but experience will be beneficial | OneFootball

Teenage sensation struggles in heartbreaking semi-final loss after being targeted by Luis Enrique’s side

Paris is a place from which few Arsenal fans hold fond memories. Beaten here in their sole Champions League final appearance, on Wednesday night the French capital claimed hopes of glory again, Mikel Arteta’s side falling at the semi-final stage, as close as they have come to the biggest game in club football since.

At times this season it has been if not easy to forget, then genuinely quite hard to believe quite how young the 18-year-old left-back is. In a breakthrough campaign that has surprised everyone but himself, he has played with a maturity, a swagger and a physicality some way beyond his years.

This, though, was the toughest night of his short Arsenal career, one in which the fearlessness of youth was at last trumped by its naivety. It ended with a merciful withdrawal midway through the second half, moments after a ludicrously harsh handball decision had gone against him for a Paris Saint-Germain spot-kick.

He did not cost his side the tie, let them down or anything of such decisive ilk. In fact, thanks to David Raya’s penalty save, Desire Doue’s wasteful finish and a stunning Declan Rice recovery tackle, somehow, he did not even cost them a goal.

He served us all a reminder that even the most oven-ready of young footballers must go through it all on their way to the top

But he served us all a reminder that even the most oven-ready of young footballers must go through it all on their way to the top, which is easy to forget when you have spent the last few weeks watch Lamine Yamal do what Lamine Yamal does.

Sprinting out for the warm-ups, Lewis-Skelly did not look like a man fazed by atmosphere or occasion and maybe that was the issue. He set out to play as he always does, as he had already in this kind of climate in the Bernabeu and, crucially, as PSG knew he would.

Make no mistake, Luis Enrique’s side targeted Lewis-Skelly here, pressing him a little more feverishly than the rest of Arsenal’s defenders, knowing his propensity to takes chances on the ball.

In response, he got the balance of risk and reward wrong on two counts. First, was that Arsenal’s own high press - notably higher than their norm in games against sides of this calibre - left them exposed at the back. So many players were committed so far up the pitch that even losing possession 50 yards from goal felt almost certain to lead directly to a PSG shot.

Second, was the state of the tie. One mistake, for all Arsenal started in such dominant style, had the potential to make them toast.

And it very nearly did. After Rice, Gabriel Martinelli and Martin Odegaard had all gone close to that crucial early goal, Lewis-Skelly’s poor decision in possession gifted PSG their first opening. It was spurned by Doue, but seemed to awaken the home side to their own potential on the break. Minutes later, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia hit the post.

Then came Fabian Ruiz’s stunner and the stakes for Arsenal swelled again. Again, though, Lewis-Skelly took an inadvisable chance. Rice ran 50 yards to bail out his young team-mate, but took a huge gamble himself.

Having just been booked, had he caught Kvaratskhelia instead of the ball with his challenge, it would have been a penalty and he would have been off.

Lewis-Skelly was not alone in these types of blunder. William Saliba made a very similar clanger with a loose pass on halfway. Thomas Partey tried to be too clever on the edge of the box, allowing Achraf Hakimi’s clinching goal. Those are senior players who have lived these kinds of nights - if not at this stage - before.

To Lewis-Skelly, this was all new. There was a long consoling hug from Arteta at full-time, another from Bukayo Saka, and a shirt pulled over the face to hide tears.

And for the youngest Englishman ever to start both legs of a Champions League semi-final, you hope that somewhere down the road, this experience will pay.