Mikel Arteta has conceded he may have waited too long to hand Myles Lewis-Skelly a midfield start, after the 18-year-old produced one of the performances of his fledgling career to help Arsenal move six points clear at the top of the Premier League table.
Lewis-Skelly was named in the starting lineup against Fulham on 3 May 2026, with Arteta using the fixture to rest Martin Zubimendi, who had been showing signs of fatigue. The teenager responded with a display that controlled the tempo of the match from start to finish, as Arsenal ran out 3-0 winners in a result that significantly strengthened their position in the title race.
At full time, Arteta met Lewis-Skelly on the pitch with a visible embrace — a moment that underlined the manager’s satisfaction with how the selection had unfolded. When asked afterwards why it had taken until this point in the season to give the youngster a start in his natural midfield role, Arteta offered a candid and self-deprecating response.
“Because probably I don’t have a clue,” Arteta said. “Maybe I should have done it earlier, I don’t know.”
Despite the humour in his remarks, the Arsenal manager was clear that the decision was not taken lightly. Arteta explained that a combination of factors — player readiness, team structure, and the nature of the opposition — all had to align before he felt comfortable deploying Lewis-Skelly in that specific position at such a critical stage of the season.
“I have to do things when I believe a player is ready, the team is ready and the opponent is the right one to play with him in that position,” Arteta said. “We’ve done it today, it was the first time. It was a big risk because I knew what was going to happen. If it works, it’s great, if we’d have lost the game — ‘How do you play a kid at this age in this scenario in a position he hasn’t played?’ I knew that, but I had the feeling it was the right game for him.”
The Fulham match represented only Lewis-Skelly’s third Premier League appearance of the 2025/26 campaign, a reflection of just how limited his opportunities in midfield have been this season. The majority of his first-team exposure to date has come at left-back — an inverted role in which he established himself during the previous season and earned recognition for a notable performance against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu.
His promotion through Arsenal’s academy system has been closely monitored, and Saturday’s display is likely to intensify debate around how frequently he should feature in his preferred central role between now and the end of the season. With Arsenal locked in a Premier League title challenge, Arteta’s squad management decisions will continue to draw scrutiny as the campaign enters its final stages.
The result leaves Arsenal with a six-point advantage at the summit of the standings, with the title race entering what could be its decisive phase. Whether Lewis-Skelly’s midfield performance against Fulham marks a turning point in his deployment this season remains to be seen, but Arteta’s post-match admission suggests the teenager has made a strong case for more regular inclusion.
