LONDON — Arsenal find themselves back in the title race at just the time when they look short of the energy needed for a marathon, sprint or even a brisk jog. Here was a triumph as much over tired legs as it was a Tottenham side who, for all the attacking intent of Ange Postecoglou’s second-half changes, rarely if ever looked like testing David Raya’s goal after Heung-min Son’s deflected opener. It was a victory because Arsenal refused to let it be anything else, least of all the 18-year-old on their left flank.
The fight back, the game as a whole, was the Arsenal of this season writ large. Dominance for extended stretches that resulted in snatched chances and on this occasion far too few shots. A set-piece goal credited as Dominic Solanke’s own goal was all about the relentless will to win of Gabriel, as apparent in him attacking Declan Rice corners as it was in him defending his penalty areas in the dying moments. Leandro Trossard’s fizz into the far post was a rare moment of quality from an Arsenal attacker, more often than not your response was bafflement at how such talented players contrived to turn so many penalty box touches into so little.
No matter. Arsenal could survive yet another night of finishing woes because of their relentless brilliance at the other end. A goal down, Postecoglou had shuffled a pack that had left him far from impressed. On came James Maddison and Brennan Johnson, Tottenham aiming to get on the front foot. The sum total of that: a collection of middling shots, one moment Thomas Partey and William Saliba contrived to put the ball on a plate for Solanke and his shot was blocked and a smack against the post from the finest angle by Pedro Porro at the death.
Of course Gabriel was at the heart of that rearguard. You knew he would be, the Dikembe Mutumbo of Premier League center backs. Since the start of last season, he has blocked more shots (57) than the opposition have scored (48). Wednesday night, more shots were blocked by the big man than David Raya, who gets to use his hands to do exactly that.
It’s been a while now where Gabriel has been smothering attacks and battering through set-piece defenses. Rice, too, has put in plenty of ferocious performances against great rivals Tottenham, whether in Arsenal’s colors or West Ham’s. The last time these two sides met, though, Myles Lewis-Skelly had not even made his Premier League debut. Given the borderline hoarding of left backs, that moment seemed a while off.
Now, one wonders if he will lose his spot when Riccardo Calafiori returns from another spell on the sidelines, this one likely to be brief. Lewis-Skelly’s near decade-long journey from academy to the Arsenal first team might predate Arteta’s appointment but the 18-year-old plays like a manager molded for this coach.
A natural midfielder, his understanding of how to position his body and shield the ball belies years of scrapping against bigger kids in the engine room.
“The young boy Myles was unbelievable,” said Rice. “For 18 years of age to be playing how he is … It is just ridiculous.
“Four or five times in the second half, he used his body to get away from someone. He has that Moussa Dembele-type strength.”
A comparison with one of the great midfielders of the last decade should seem ludicrous when it is deployed at a teen playing as a left back. Somehow it doesn’t. Drifting infield, Lewis-Skelly passes the ball with precision, typified from the outset on this night when he first stole the ball high in the Tottenham half before rolling it across the defense to Raheem Sterling, setting up the first of many, many moments where Arsenal turned a prime shooting position into anything but a shot.
Beyond even that, and this is perhaps why he so typifies Arteta’s Arsenal, Lewis-Skelly fights for everything. That Sterling chance came because of a left back intent that his early action should be to go in firmly but fairly on his forward. Five duels resulted in the teen emerging victorious four times, against two of the Premier League’s form forwards in Dejan Kulusevski and latterly Johnson. No one recovered possession more frequently.
This fight for every inch went beyond the end of his outstanding derby debut. If he’s going to be substituted off after 87 exemplary minutes, you can be certain he’s going to make Richarlison drag him to the near touchline … and then he’ll fight his corner. Take the yellow card, if that aids the team’s cause. You could almost believe he’d been training in the ‘dark arts.’
“It’s very rare to see, 18 years old, playing against Kulusevski and Johnson in a big London derby for the first time, to perform with that composure, with that attitude, control emotionally,” said Mikel Arteta. “Very rare to see.
“He makes everybody at the club very proud. He has been in our system for a long time, we know the kind of education that the academy is giving to our boys to get prepared. We have to pick them in the moment they are ready. With him he was ready very early and in a different position. He has never played as a full back before.
“He responds in the manner he has done, which is a joy to watch.”
Arteta wasn’t the only one enraptured. The Clock End hollered in delight as he grabbed the badge in the post-match afterglow, Lewis-Skelly so enraptured in the moment that he might have ripped the cannon straight from his chest. A bear hug from Ian Wright, the adulation of the Emirates Stadium, the glowing praise of his manager: Lewis-Skelly deserved it all and more.
In “the biggest game of the season for our people”, as Arteta put it, he had come ready for the fight. With tired legs across the field, Arsenal needed those who could be relied on for their courage as much as their quality. Lewis-Skelly embodied exactly that.
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