Arsenal visit Mansfield Town in the FA Cup fifth round on Saturday, in a game that will present Mikel Arteta with an opportunity to give several squad players minutes, although Myles Lewis-Skelly will not be among those granted rare playing time.
The Gunners moved seven points clear at the top of the Premier League table by beating Brighton on Wednesday night, courtesy of Bukayo Saka’s early deflected strike. Arteta’s men now have ten days to take their minds off the intensity of the title race by turning their attention to the FA Cup and the Champions League.
Three days after facing Mansfield, the North Londoners travel to Germany to face Bayer Leverkusen in the round of 16 of Europe’s elite competition. Arteta will need to rotate heavily between these matches to ensure his team remain on course for an unprecedented quadruple, although the Spaniard has been dealt a big blow on this front.
Why Myles Lewis-Skelly won’t play for Arsenal against Mansfield
In the midst of a gruelling schedule, Arsenal have been given the perfect opportunity to hand their key players rest in the form of a trip to League One Mansfield on Saturday. While Manchester City will likely field as strong a line-up as possible when they visit Newcastle United, the Gunners will presumably put out a second-string eleven as they attempt to overcome the Stags.
That said, this has been complicated by the fact that Lewis-Skelly won’t be able to feature in Nottinghamshire. The left-back is suspended for the fifth round tie after receiving bookings in each of the previous two rounds.
Carded for cynical fouls against both Portsmouth and Wigan, the Hale End graduate is ineligible for the last 16 tie. This gives Arteta a selection headache, as he’ll likely have to start both Piero Hincapie and Riccardo Calafiori in his back four.
However, Lewis-Skelly might actually have been in line for a midfield runout, which now also isn’t an option. Mikel Merino is out for the season, while Declan Rice and Martin Zubimendi are on the verge of exhaustion. In an ideal world, Arteta likely would’ve selected Lewis-Skelly alongside Christian Norgaard in the middle of the park against Mansfield.
The Spaniard will now have to think of an inventive way to set his team up without using players who are close to burning out.
| Lewis-Skelly’s Statistics 2024/25 (Premier League Only) | |
| Appearances | 23 |
| Pass Accuracy | 90.3% |
| Progressive Passes per 90 | 4.85 |
| Passes into the Final Third per 90 | 4.77 |
| Fouls Won per 90 | 3.08 |
| Dribbled past per 90 | 0.0 |
Ray Parlour says Myles Lewis-Skelly will be ‘disappointed’ with current role
Hincapie has been outstanding in recent weeks for Arsenal, while Calafiori was one of the Gunners’ standout performers in the first half of the season. The two full-backs have firmly established themselves as being ahead of Lewis-Skelly in the pecking order on the left-hand side of Arteta’s defence, leaving the teenager somewhat redundant.
He has no clear pathway to minutes at Arsenal, prompting Ray Parlour to claim that the youngster will be ‘disappointed’ with his current role.
“Ethan Nwaneri may understand things as he got his loan move to Marseille, but Lewis-Skelly will be disappointed,” the ex-Arsenal midfielder told the Metro.
“A lot has happened in his career very quickly. He got into the Arsenal team, played for England and scored for England all at a very young age and suddenly he’s been left out.
“I don’t know what his attitude is like in training every day. As a youngster, you just have to get your head down. Sometimes you can get too big for your boots when it’s all going well for you. I’ve seen it happen quite a few times with players. When you get left out, you have to make sure you work hard in training and show the manager what you are about.
“I’m on the outside looking in, I don’t know what they do in training or what the attitudes with players who are left is like. But what I would say is when you are left out, you are still in the manager’s plans, but you have to work that bit harder. Make sure the manager sees you and that you are ready to do anything to get into that side.”
