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Myles Lewis-Skelly’s outrageous celebration in Arsenal’s 5-1 thumping of Manchester City announced the club’s 18-year-old academy star on to the world stage.
The audacious decision to goad one of the game’s blue-chip names in Erling Haaland followed a clash between the two players at the Etihad in September.
Haaland did not take kindly to Lewis-Skelly’s involvement in a post-match scuffle after the chaotic 2-2 draw.
“Who the f*** are you?” he yelled at Lewis-Skelly, who had just been handed his Premier League bow as an 89th-minute substitute. Haaland will certainly be aware of the name now.
In the 132 days since his league debut at the home of the champions, Lewis-Skelly has taken advantage of a string of injuries to cement his place as Mikel Arteta’s first-choice left-back.
It has been a dramatic rise, particularly given that he has only recently converted to the backline after he came through the club’s junior ranks as a ball-carrying midfielder.
Yet his robust power, skill, composure and complete lack of fear has rendered Oleksandr Zinchenko and Kieran Tierney virtually surplus to requirements in north London – with both likely to leave the Gunners – and Riccardo Calafiori, a £42million summer signing from Bologna, warming the bench.
His displays have not gone unnoticed by his team-mates, with Declan Rice describing the player who joined Arsenal when he was eight as “so special that it is like has been built in a lab”.
And with England struggling to find a replacement for the injury-prone Luke Shaw, do not be surprised if he has caught the attention of Thomas Tuchel, too.
