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Who are you? Erling Haaland asked Arsenal’s teenage debutant Myles Lewis-Skelly — albeit in slightly more colourful language — after John Stones had snatched a dramatic late point for Manchester City at the Etihad in September.
The whole world knows who Lewis-Skelly is now. After the 18-year-old scored Arsenal’s third goal in their 5-1 rout of City at the Emirates on Sunday, he plonked himself down on the turf, crossed his legs and pinched his fingers and thumbs together to mimic Haaland’s meditation celebration.
What the proceeding circus has overshadowed, however, is how quickly the full back has established himself as one of the Premier League’s top performers — one who will be crucial for Mikel Arteta if the Gunners are to chase down Liverpool in their quest for the Premier League title.
What is it, then, that makes Lewis-Skelly so special?
ARSENAL’S MR RELIABLE
For the past few months, Arteta has started Lewis-Skelly, a ball-carrying central midfielder, as an inverted full back who tucks in when Arsenal have the ball so they can attack in their favoured 3-2-5 formation. Oleksandr Zinchenko did it before him for Arsenal, Trent Alexander-Arnold has done it for Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp, Rico Lewis for Manchester City.
Gunners manager Arteta likes to build from the back, so he needs players who can keep the ball. Lewis-Skelly is thriving because nobody in the division is currently as good at doing so.
Since his first league start in December, no player with at least 400 minutes of action boasts a higher pass success rate than the teenager’s staggering 96 per cent. He has played 250 passes and completed 240 of them.
He leads the division for pass success rate in his own half, and in the opposition’s.
Only two players, including Virgil van Dijk, win a higher percentage of their duels than Lewis-Skelly, with Newcastle’s Bruno Guimaraes and Brighton star Georginio Rutter the only ones to win more fouls per game.
In that time, no Arsenal player who has played at least 400 minutes has lost possession fewer times. No Arsenal player has won more duels, or a higher percentage of them. No Gunners player has won more fouls.
No player has been dribbled past on fewer occasions — he’s yet to have anyone go past him — and the only reason any of his team-mates have completed a higher percentage of their dribbles than Lewis-Skelly is because Gabriel tried it once and pulled it off.
When the youngster carries the ball, nobody can bundle him off it. As well as nicking Haaland’s celebration, there were frequent occasions when the 6ft 5in striker challenged him for the ball and just bounced off.
Again, he’s 18 years old.
BRINGS BACK BALANCE
If you look at the passes Lewis-Skelly has made since his first start, most of them are in the opposition half in the left channel. This has, for too long, been the weak spot in Arsenal’s attack.
Mail Sport analysis at the start of December showed how Arsenal were much too dependent on their right flank to create chances, usually through Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka.
The Gunners became far too predictable, but Lewis-Skelly has stepped in to restore balance to the side.
Before his first start, only 23 per cent of Arsenal’s chances came down the left flank, compared to nearly half down the right. With Lewis-Skelly in the side, that has jumped to 36 per cent.
Saka’s injury has impacted that, too, but Lewis-Skelly’s ability to keep the ball and maintain his defensive shape has been a big boost for Arteta.
ALLOWS RICE TO ROAM
It’s not that he’s Arsenal’s creative spark. On the ball, Lewis-Skelly is not the most daring. Only seven of those 240 completed passes in the league have been between the lines, ones that split opponent’s defensive or midfield structure. Only five of his passes have been into the box. Only three have created chances for team-mates.
His ability and positioning, though, allow Declan Rice to make more runs into dangerous areas from midfield without fearing how much space he might leave if Arsenal lose the ball.
Rice created four chances against City, the second time he’s done so in the last five games. He only did it once in the previous 18 matches this term.
In two of his last three league outings, Rice has played at least nine passes into the box. He only managed that in one game all season before then.
Arsenal’s game plan at the Emirates was to target City’s right flank, as Lewis-Skelly rotated with Rice and Leandro Trossard to, if we can borrow a phrase, humble Pep Guardiola and his team.
For the Gunners’ third goal, Lewis-Skelly pushed beyond Rice into Arsenal’s front five before receiving the ball, finishing the chance, and triggering every City fan across the globe.
Right now, the answer to Haaland’s infamous question is that Lewis-Skelly is the man who copied his celebration.
Soon enough, they will know him for a damn sight more than that.
