Ethan Nwaneri is a name that has been on the lips of Arsenal fans since his (slightly mischievously conceived) first team debut against Brentford in September 2022. On that day, Nwaneri had to change separately from his teammates because he was still only 15 years old. With Arsenal 3-0 up and missing Martin Odegaard and Emile Smith Rowe, Nwaneri snuck into a squad that also featured Lino Sousa, Matt Smith and Marquinhos, the latter also came on in this game.
Arteta has never fully opened up on the reason that he brought Nwaneri on for the final few minutes making him, by some distance, the youngest first team player in the club’s history. At the time, the club were trying to convince Nwaneri to sign a new contract and I suspect that was part of the theatre, as well as the very generous game state.
Recently, there has been a lot of talk around Nwaneri playing more minutes than he currently is and understandably so. He has been on the radar for some time now but, more than this, he is probably the closest analogue in the squad to the injured Martin Odegaard. With Smith Rowe sold to Fulham this summer and Fabio Vieira taking a sort of inverse gap year by going home to ‘find himself’, some of Nwaneri’s most obvious blockers to the first team have been cleared.
In the clamour for Nwaneri, however, we have probably been guilty of ignoring the progress and opportunity afforded to Myles Lewis-Skelly, who has risen through the ranks in parallel to Nwaneri. Like Nwaneri, an international tournament summer afforded MLS some valuable opportunities in pre-season. Senior international tournaments are often midwife to the academy player breakthrough.
Cesc Fabregas really came to prominence in the summer of 2004 with Vieira at the Euros with France. Jack Wilshere became a first team fixture in 2010-11 and Spain’s passage to the 2010 World Cup Final meant Fabregas missed the entirety of that pre-season and Wilshere stepped into his shoes incredibly capably. It meant that when Fabregas returned (and Arsenal rebuked Barcelona’s bids for the player), the Song, Wilshere and Fabregas midfield trio was born.
A teenage Wilshere had the opportunity to cast Denilson and Abou Diaby (who played 45 games in 2009-10) into the shade and took it. Likewise, Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly earned an opportunity to bump themselves up the pecking order this summer and both have taken it. Sanctioning Vieira’s loan move to Porto implied a level of faith from Arteta in Nwaneri but, arguably, Lewis Skelly’s rise has been even more pronounced.
In the annoyance over Nwaneri remaining an unused sub in the drab 1-0 win over Shakhtar last week, the fact that Lewis-Skelly was called from the bench to replace Riccardo Calafiori at left-back ahead of Oleksandr Zinchenko was lost. During the latter stages of pre-season, as senior players started to return, Lewis-Skelly featured in an inverted left-back position which is not really where he has played in the junior teams.
On the face of it, it seemed an odd move given the depth Arsenal have at left-back but I would argue that depth is very short term and maybe even a little cosmetic. I would not be at all surprised if Jakub Kiwior, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Zinchenko all left at some point in the next two transfer windows. In any case, Tomiyasu is rarely available and Zinchenko appears to have inherited Cedric’s squad position as well as his squad number this summer.
Cedric’s departure and vacation of the number 17 was hardly a sudden shock, his leaving drinks have been booked since about 2021. Despite this, it was not announced that Zinchenko would assume the number 17 until August 6th and I think that probably tells you that Arsenal were probably trying to sell the player in the background. It does make me wonder whether Zinchenko was not especially determined to read the writing on the wall and Arteta has responded by going into full freeze out mode?
All of this means that a squad role for an inverted left-back is absolutely on the horizon (and let’s face it, the squad situation did not prevent the scenario where Lewis-Skelly had to mark Mo Salah in a Premier League game for more than half an hour in any case). Good inverted left-backs are pretty rare on the market. It is a relatively new-fangled role that would not have been on the radar of most active professionals in their academy days.
It probably makes some sense to try to ‘grow’ one in the lab, as it were. But what it also interesting for Lewis-Skelly is that his slightly more natural midfield role(s) might have some intern options available soon too. Thomas Partey and Jorginho are both north of 30. While Declan Rice probably will assume the ‘six’ position on a more long-term basis, there could be need for greater depth there soon.
Playing as an inverted left-back essentially asks the player to roll across into a midfield double pivot in any case, it’s all valuable education for Lewis-Skelly while Arsenal find out exactly who and what he is. Around 18 months ago, I had a conversation with former Arsenal Women coach Jonas Eidevall about finding positions for young players in teams and he talked about being open minded about player attributes before the age of 23.
He talked specifically about Norwegian midfielder Frida Maanum becoming an advanced number 10, ‘It also shows why sometimes it is so hard to just look at statistics when you look at young players,’ he explained. ‘I think when you see Frida in Sweden, you saw she had a great shot but she didn’t score many goals when you see it from the statistical perspective.
‘That is something we could have held against her when we looked at her in the number 10 position because you ask whether that would contribute enough points for the team. That is where you need to look at the potential when you work with young players, you have to see the qualities and now you see she is contributing a lot of points playing that position. That is very interesting when you work with young players.’
In effect, there could be a space in the squad for another inverted left-back or a deep lying midfielder on the horizon and it looks as though Arsenal are testing Lewis-Skelly’s sea legs to see whether he is a fit for either position (maybe he can be a fit for both?) My personal view is that that represents an intelligent use of resource and future squad planning and affords a talented young player some stretch opportunities.
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