In September, at the end of a particularly tricky draw between Manchester City and Arsenal, Erling Haaland spotted a 17-year-old debutant who wanted to take on him and asked: 'who the hell are you?'
Now both he and the Premier League are fully aware of Myles Lewis-Skelly, a mega-talent whose breakthrough was quietly anticipated by Arsenal insiders.
As seen in his three successive league starts of late, against Everton, Crystal Palace and Ipswich Town, the now 18-year-old has the physicality, defensive acumen and ball skills of a player well beyond his tender years. It has stirred the fanbase, who are already shouting about how far their home-grown gem (he joined the Gunners at the age of eight) can go.
His meteoric rise, including a shift at the start of this season from central midfield to left back amid the club's defensive injury problems, has significantly changed Lewis-Skelly's trajectory from starter to starter in his first senior campaign.
So much so that £42million summer signing Riccardo Calafiori had to contend with being on the bench for the Ipswich match after returning from injury. The Italian now has to wait and see whether he can regain his place against Brentford on New Year's Day.
Mail Sport understands Lewis-Skelly is in line for a fantastic new long-term deal. He signed his first professional contract in September last year at the age of 17 and is believed to have a three-year contract that expires in the summer of 2026.
It is understood that Arsenal want to secure the future of the promising defender to fend off interest from elsewhere, rather than risk letting his contract run until the final season. They want to ensure that players feel rewarded for their performance and progression in the team.
His improved conditions would come as no surprise to outsiders who have attended the Hale End academy in recent years. An officer, who was following both Lewis-Skelly and fellow Arsenal star Ethan Nwaneri, 17, found his gaze drawn to one of them.
“When Ethan and Myles were doing well at the academy and Ethan was getting a lot of attention, a few of us focused on Myles,” he told Mail Sport.
'I thought, 'He's the kid you need to get.' He had the better potential because of his box-to-box midfielder and his athleticism. He can play in so many positions, so his potential to reach first-team level was greater than Ethan's.
'Ethan is exceptional as a number 10, but you count on him to play in that position. “Also, when you look at Arsenal's first-team squad, it was clear that the route through the left back was much more possible than through the attacking midfield, where there are some big names.”
He has the same agent as Gunners legend Ian Wright and is cautious about off-field opportunities, with his playing career the sole focus.
Born on Arsenal's home ground of Islington, Lewis-Skelly initially made headlines by securing a Premier League booking before he had played a Premier League match, in that fiery 2-2 draw at the Etihad in September.
As ten-man Arsenal frantically tried to defend a 2-1 lead in the second half, Lewis-Skelly told goalkeeper David Raya to drop to the ground and waste some time – brutally, if not quite in the spirit of things, but also a microcosm of the competitive advantage that lies behind a teenager who is jovial and cheerful off the field. He was invited by Adidas to London Fashion Week for an event at the Emirates Stadium, where he sat in the front row with teammates Calafiori and Declan Rice.
He rarely steps back, even at the end of his senior debut, when he came off the bench to confront Haaland at full-time. In response to Haaland's curious comment, Lewis-Skelly didn't step back and stared at the 6-foot-2 Norwegian, who is six inches taller than him.
Whether it's receiving a forearm to the face on a corner from Crystal Palace's Jean-Philippe Mateta or pushing Ipswich Town's Kalvin Phillips, Lewis-Skelly transforms into a different personality when he's in contention.
When sources close to the player are asked about his attributes, “athletics” or similar terms are often the words used. One source said: 'He was so strong and fast at the academy. He's down to earth too.'
His strength comes from a solid frame and natural athleticism, rather than an emphasis on weights. It has allowed him to hold his own against players much older and bigger than himself, and gives Arsenal two full backs who should not be messed with when paired with the equally robust Jurrien Timber.
Lewis-Skelly's big audition for Mikel Arteta came during Arsenal's first friendly in the US over the summer, against Bournemouth. It was his only start in those three games and he was one of the team's standout players. And more importantly, he played as a left back exactly as Arteta demands.
He turned inward in the manner of Oleksandr Zinchenko, who in that role helped take Arsenal from the top four to title challengers when he arrived in 2022. But the Ukrainian is suspect defensively and lost Arteta's confidence last season. Lewis-Skelly combines attack and defense perfectly and gets stuck in challenges on purpose.
In the academy, Lewis-Skelly played as a box-to-box midfielder in central or left midfield. But now he has a new role.
A Premier League scout recalls what he saw from Lewis-Skelly in Arsenal's youth academy last season.
'He's very athletic. He was faster, stronger and more agile than the others,” he told Mail Sport. 'He is also down to earth, down to earth and just wants to play football. He didn't think or act like he made it.
“It was clear to me that, going forward, left back would be his position in the first team, due to the different requirements of the Under 21s on the first team in terms of physicality. It's a completely different game.'
Through his grandparents, Lewis-Skelly is eligible to play for Barbados and even trained with their national team at just 14 years old, but he has come through the England age group pathway, appearing at four different levels and making his under-19 debut in September in Croatia. .
And more may follow soon. As my colleague Sami Mokbel reported this week, senior figures at the FA have set their sights on Lewis-Skelly with a view to a senior call-up – with left-back a problem position for England at the moment.
A promotion to Under 21s would be the logical first step, but many players have skipped a level or two in recent years, including Kobbie Mainoo and Marcus Rashford. With the 2026 World Cup on the horizon and 18 months to prove he's a better option than the likes of Luke Shaw or Lewis Hall… who knows.
His journey is intertwined with good friend Nwaneri. Both have risen in the Hale End rankings compared to the under 9 age group, and are also friends outside of football, with great similarities in terms of their attendance.
They made their Under 18s debuts on the same night, aged just 14, and both scored in a 6–1 win over Reading. Lewis-Skelly's goal, after he picked up the ball 25 yards out before waltzing past three defenders and smashing the ball into the top left corner, went viral on social media. The pair were also at the same trial for a £17,500-a-year scholarship at St John's School in Enfield, north London. The school wanted both, but chose Nwaneri due to lack of space.
Often it was Nwaneri who enjoyed the lion's share of the spotlight. In the first fifteen league games of this season, Nwaneri came off the bench eight times. Lewis-Skelly played just twice.
Nwaneri also stole the headlines with his performances in the Carabao Cup, where he scored three goals in three starts, including a world-class strike against Preston, which will take a beating against Arsenal for goal of the season.
But although Nwaneri has only played in the first team, Lewis-Skelly still plays for the youth academy. For the Under 21s he played in the opening two games of the Premier League 2 in August and in the EFL Trophy against MK Dons in October.
It is said that he came in without complaints and was easily assimilated with his old academy teammates. That humility bodes well for him when his big break came earlier in December, with a slew of injuries to the Gunners' backline causing Arteta to look at alternative options. Takehiro Tomiyasu, Calafiori and Zinchenko were all injured, Jurrien Timber was not fully fit and Kieran Tierney remained out of favor with Arteta.
That's where Lewis-Skelly came into the picture, starting with the 2-0 win over Monaco in the Champions League on December 11. His performance received praise. There was an atmosphere of calm on the ball, but an impressive through ball to Gabriel Jesus also resulted in Bukayo Saka's opening goal. Teammates overwhelmed him with admiration, as they often do this season, especially because of his eagerness to learn.
Saka, his Hale End idol, is a mentor, while Rice, who knows a thing or two about landing in the Premier League at a young age and navigating a change of position, has also taken him under his wing and said afterwards : the victory in Ipswich: 'He can go to the top, this boy is just very, very special. If an 18-year-old was this good, this comfortable and this strong, it was as if he had been built in a laboratory.
'I said to him the other day that it's just ridiculous how good he is.
'He's so down to earth, he's got a great family around him. I know his mother takes really good care of him, and all the boys on the training ground do too.”
Lewis-Skelly has made a strong case to continue playing. Also in that Ipswich match he completed 58 of his 59 passes, made three tackles, won three fouls, created two chances and won a whopping nine duels – the same as Timber, and more than teammates Gabriel (six) and William Saliba (four) .
His pass completion rate as a whole in his five Premier League appearances is 94 percent, third best in the top flight behind Curtis Jones and Saliba. He is the only player in the division to have attempted at least five tackles this season and won them all.
His journey was helped by his mother Marcia, who protects her son and played a key role in his career. She launched No1Fan.club this summer – a platform that provides parents with tools and surveys to help them navigate the complicated world of academy and grassroots football.
Marcia pursued an MBA in football business, then studied and passed the FIFA agent exam to better understand the landscape for her son's sake.
Arteta cited the family support Lewis-Skelly has following the Ipswich win.
“He's a special character… he's way ahead of his age, and so mature,” he said. “He has a very good environment, a very good family and then he has qualities that adapt very well to our way of playing.”
With Calafiori back, Zinchenko and Jakub Kiwior needing minutes and Timber also strong at left-back, Lewis-Skelly will obviously have a task on his hands to cement that role in the second half of his debut season. But whatever happens, he has shown that he has a great future ahead of him.
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