Myles Lewis-Skelly has spoken to Mikel Arteta about his frustrations at being left on the bench for Arsenal lately, according to a report.
Charlie Wyett, Simon Collings, and Joshua Hall report for The S*n that Myles Lewis-Skelly has told Mikel Arteta of his “major frustrations” at his lack of recent appearances for Arsenal, with the manager telling the player to be patient.
Despite that call for patience, the same report adds that Lewis-Skelly’s future at Arsenal next season isn’t clear, and he could be sold, though a loan is more likely.
Lewis-Skelly has played 26 times for Arsenal this season, which isn’t a bad total. But only 12 of those appearances were starts, and only one of those starts was in the Premier League.
It’s also true that the situation has been getting worse recently. Since the start of February, Lewis-Skelly has only appeared in the FA Cup game against Wigan – in which he unfortunately picked up a yellow-card suspension ruling him out of the following round against Mansfield.
The teenager was left on the bench in the League Cup semi-final, in Arsenal’s six Premier League games, and in their one Champions League game over that period.
The frustration for Lewis-Skelly will be that he’s been almost universally available to feature for Arsenal, unlike so many of his teammates.
For example, Martin Odegaard has only played one more game than Lewis-Skelly, making 27 appearances in all competitions. But his absences are almost entirely explained by injuries.
By contrast, Lewis-Skelly hasn’t had a single injury this season. He’s consistently been available to feature in the matchday squad, he just hasn’t been used very often.
If that doesn’t change in the next couple of months, you’d absolutely expect the player to be angling for a loan move in the summer.