Ethan Nwaneri is a reputation that has been on the lips of Arsenal followers since his (barely mischievously conceived) first staff debut towards Brentford in September 2022. On that day, Nwaneri needed to change individually from his teammates as a result of he was nonetheless solely 15 years outdated. With Arsenal 3-0 up and lacking Martin Odegaard and Emile Smith Rowe, Nwaneri snuck right into a squad that additionally featured Lino Sousa, Matt Smith and Marquinhos, the latter additionally got here on on this sport.
Arteta has by no means totally opened up on the rationale that he introduced Nwaneri on for the ultimate jiffy making him, by a long way, the youngest first staff participant within the membership’s historical past. On the time, the membership had been making an attempt to persuade Nwaneri to signal a brand new contract and I think that was a part of the theatre, in addition to the very beneficiant sport state.
Just lately, there was numerous speak round Nwaneri enjoying extra minutes than he presently is and understandably so. He has been on the radar for a while now however, greater than this, he’s most likely the closest analogue within the squad to the injured Martin Odegaard. With Smith Rowe bought to Fulham this summer season and Fabio Vieira taking a kind of inverse hole 12 months by going house to ‘discover himself’, a few of Nwaneri’s most evident blockers to the primary staff have been cleared.
Within the clamour for Nwaneri, nonetheless, we have now most likely been responsible of ignoring the progress and alternative afforded to Myles Lewis-Skelly, who has risen by means of the ranks in parallel to Nwaneri. Like Nwaneri, a world match summer season afforded MLS some beneficial alternatives in pre-season. Senior worldwide tournaments are sometimes midwife to the academy participant breakthrough.
Cesc Fabregas actually got here to prominence in the summertime of 2004 with Vieira on the Euros with France. Jack Wilshere grew to become a primary staff fixture in 2010-11 and Spain’s passage to the 2010 World Cup Last meant Fabregas missed the whole lot of that pre-season and Wilshere stepped into his footwear extremely capably. It meant that when Fabregas returned (and Arsenal rebuked Barcelona’s bids for the participant), the Music, Wilshere and Fabregas midfield trio was born.
A teenage Wilshere had the chance to solid Denilson and Abou Diaby (who performed 45 video games in 2009-10) into the shade and took it. Likewise, Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly earned a possibility to bump themselves up the pecking order this summer season and each have taken it. Sanctioning Vieira’s mortgage transfer to Porto implied a stage of religion from Arteta in Nwaneri however, arguably, Lewis Skelly’s rise has been much more pronounced.
Within the annoyance over Nwaneri remaining an unused sub within the drab 1-0 win over Shakhtar final week, the truth that Lewis-Skelly was known as from the bench to interchange Riccardo Calafiori at left-back forward of Oleksandr Zinchenko was misplaced. Through the latter levels of pre-season, as senior gamers began to return, Lewis-Skelly featured in an inverted left-back place which isn’t actually the place he has performed within the junior groups.
On the face of it, it appeared an odd transfer given the depth Arsenal have at left-back however I might argue that depth may be very quick time period and perhaps even a bit beauty. I might not be in any respect stunned if Jakub Kiwior, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Zinchenko all left in some unspecified time in the future within the subsequent two switch home windows. In any case, Tomiyasu is never accessible and Zinchenko seems to have inherited Cedric’s squad place in addition to his squad quantity this summer season.
Cedric’s departure and trip of the quantity 17 was hardly a sudden shock, his leaving drinks have been booked since about 2021. Regardless of this, it was not introduced that Zinchenko would assume the quantity 17 till August sixth and I believe that most likely tells you that Arsenal had been most likely making an attempt to promote the participant within the background. It does make me ponder whether Zinchenko was not particularly decided to learn the writing on the wall and Arteta has responded by going into full freeze out mode?
All of which means that a squad position for an inverted left-back is totally on the horizon (and let’s face it, the squad scenario didn’t forestall the state of affairs the place Lewis-Skelly needed to mark Mo Salah in a Premier League sport for greater than half an hour in any case). Good inverted left-backs are fairly uncommon in the marketplace. It’s a comparatively new-fangled position that will not have been on the radar of most energetic professionals of their academy days.
It most likely makes some sense to attempt to ‘develop’ one within the lab, because it had been. However what it additionally attention-grabbing for Lewis-Skelly is that his barely extra pure midfield position(s) might need some intern choices accessible quickly too. Thomas Partey and Jorginho are each north of 30. Whereas Declan Rice most likely will assume the ‘six’ place on a extra long-term foundation, there might be want for higher depth there quickly.
Taking part in as an inverted left-back basically asks the participant to roll throughout right into a midfield double pivot in any case, it’s all beneficial schooling for Lewis-Skelly whereas Arsenal discover out precisely who and what he’s. Round 18 months in the past, I had a dialog with former Arsenal Girls coach Jonas Eidevall about discovering positions for younger gamers in groups and he talked about being open minded about participant attributes earlier than the age of 23.
He talked particularly about Norwegian midfielder Frida Maanum turning into a sophisticated quantity 10, ‘It additionally reveals why generally it’s so arduous to only take a look at statistics once you take a look at younger gamers,’ he defined. ‘I believe once you see Frida in Sweden, you noticed she had an incredible shot however she didn’t rating many targets once you see it from the statistical perspective.
‘That’s one thing we might have held towards her once we checked out her within the quantity 10 place since you ask whether or not that will contribute sufficient factors for the staff. That’s the place you’ll want to take a look at the potential once you work with younger gamers, it’s important to see the qualities and now you see she is contributing numerous factors enjoying that place. That may be very attention-grabbing once you work with younger gamers.’
In impact, there might be an area within the squad for one more inverted left-back or a deep mendacity midfielder on the horizon and it seems as if Arsenal are testing Lewis-Skelly’s sea legs to see whether or not he’s a match for both place (perhaps he generally is a match for each?) My private view is that that represents an clever use of useful resource and future squad planning and affords a gifted younger participant some stretch alternatives.
