Myles Lewis-Skelly is not named in Arsenal’s 22-man senior Premier League squad for the first half of the 2026/27 season.
However, the 19-year-old has not been dropped by Mikel Arteta.
Lewis-Skelly is registered separately as an Under-21 player, meaning Arsenal can use him in the Premier League without taking up one of their senior squad places.
Arsenal submitted only 22 senior players from a possible 25 after the summer transfer window, while Lewis-Skelly and Max Dowman sit outside that limit.
Arsenal leave room in Premier League squad
Arsenal’s senior list is:
Goalkeepers: David Raya, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Illan Meslier.
Defenders: William Saliba, Cristhian Mosquera, Ben White, Piero Hincapié, Gabriel Magalhães, Jurrien Timber, Ezri Konsa, Riccardo Calafiori.
Midfielders: Martin Ødegaard, Eberechi Eze, Bruno Guimarães, Mikel Merino, Martín Zubimendi, Declan Rice.
Forwards: Bukayo Saka, Viktor Gyökeres, Noni Madueke, Christos Tzolis, Kai Havertz.
That leaves Arsenal three players below the maximum 25-man senior limit following a summer of significant movement.
Bruno Guimarães, Konsa, Hincapié, Tzolis and Meslier are all included following their arrivals.
Their registrations complete the squad overhaul detailed in our full breakdown of every Arsenal summer transfer.
Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus, Leandro Trossard, Jakub Kiwior, Christian Nørgaard, Fabio Vieira and Karl Hein are among the senior players to have left permanently.
Arsenal’s summer rebuild has consequently created a much leaner senior group despite the club spending £198.5million on four major additions.
Our analysis of the winners and losers from Arteta’s £198.5m rebuild looked at how those changes have altered the hierarchy inside the squad.
Why Lewis-Skelly and Dowman are not in Arsenal’s 22
Myles Lewis-Skelly’s absence from the senior list is not an omission from Arteta’s Premier League plans.
The Premier League has included Lewis-Skelly on Arsenal’s separate U21 list alongside Dowman and a large group of academy players.
U21 players can feature in the Premier League without occupying one of the 25 senior squad positions.
That allows Arsenal to use Lewis-Skelly and Dowman freely while preserving senior registration places elsewhere in the group.
The senior list also contains eight players marked as homegrown by the Premier League: Eze, Konsa, Madueke, Raya, Rice, Saka, Saliba and White.
Arsenal therefore begin the next stage of their title defence with a 22-man registered senior squad, substantial U21 depth and three unused places.
The transfer window may be closed, but Arteta has deliberately not needed to fill every available senior slot.
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