It was an Emirates night that has gone down the journal of a 18-year-old kid named Myles Lewis-Skelly and also the history books of the Premier League. The stakes were high as Arteta was pitted against his former mentor, Pep Guardiola. And the former walked away with the bragging rights after ‘humbling’ City by a 5-1 margin.
Lewis-Skelly, the Arsenal academy graduate who got his first senior cap at Etihad back in September, grabbed the eyeballs in the high-voltage clash. He not only came out with flying colours so far as his defensive duties were concerned but also posed a serious threat through Arsenal’s left channel.
Lewis-Skelly even scored a goal, which followed a Haalandesque celebration probably to remind the Norwegian to ‘stay humble’. The Arsenal left-back combined well with Declan Rice and Trossard to create problems for City in the final third.
Arsenal has their task cut out against Newcastle when they face Eddie Howe’s side in the second leg of the English League Cup semi-final. It won’t be easy to overturn a 0-2 deficit from the first leg. However, given their current form as well as Newcastle’s dip in consistency recently, Arteta’s men can very much make it to the finals.
In that case, in double gameweek 25, Arsenal can enjoy two fixtures. Then Lewis-Skelly will have a plum fixture against Leicester City away along with a clash against Chelsea at home.
In such a scenario, Arsenal’s teenage left-back qualifies for serious consideration in fantasy. Lewis-Skelly has now started the last four games and on Sunday, he was ahead of many high-profile names in the pecking order.
We all know that Arteta has too many quality left-backs at his disposal and Lewis-Skelly edged past the likes of Kieran Tierney, Jakub Kiwior, Oleksandr Zinchenko and even top summer signing Riccardo Calafiori.
Now, this is really something for an 18-year-old academy player who doesn’t have more than ten senior appearances in club football. It shows the amount of trust he has earned from his manager. Mikel Arteta is known to promote young talents. Ethan Nwaneri is another bright example in recent times.
You would be surprised to know that Lewis-Skelly hit the target against Manchester City from an xG as low as 0.04. After his statement performance on Saturday, it would be almost impossible for any of those experienced and much-fancied left-back options to dislodge him from the starting line-up.
The young English footballer flying high with sky being the limit, looks the cheapest option to cash on Arsenal’s sturdy defence. Apart from his budget price-tag which stands at £4.5m right now, Lewis-Skelly can be a great differential too. His current ownership is only 0.3%.
Myles may have miles to go but this appears to be a nice entry point for him in Fantasy Premier League 2024-25, as Arsenal has Leicester and West Ham in the next two even without a double gameweek.