Arsenal have had a difficult season.
The Gunners started the campaign with the aim of winning the Premier League title after finishing second in back-to-back campaigns.
However, injuries have derailed their season, and they now sit second behind Liverpool in the Premier League – 12 points below the summit.
Despite that, there are a lot of positives to take for Mikel Arteta this season. There have been a few good surprises as well.
The Arsenal manager has now had his say on two of them.
Mikel Arteta explains what’s so surprising about Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri at Arsenal
Arsenal have one of the best academies in world football.
The Gunners have been producing incredibly talented footballers year after year, and that has helped them save millions on the transfer market.
Bukayo Saka is their biggest academy graduate over the last decade, but Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri are on track to become superstars as well.
Arteta has given regular opportunities to the youngsters this season, and the Arsenal manager has now admitted that he has been surprised by how well they have fared.
He said in his press conference, as relayed on HaytersTV: “It (Lewis-Skelly’s rise) keeps being surprising. It’s the same with what has happened with Ethan, especially because those two come from a development where they haven’t had any professional football.
“That’s very uncommon. In other leagues, you play in the Championship, you’ve been on loan, you’ve seen a lot of really young players at top clubs in England, but they’ve had loan spells.
“But these guys, they haven’t had any professional football in their career. It’s like going from go-karting to Formula 1 the next day and coping with that. That’s exceptional!”
There’s another wonderkid at Arsenal coming through the ranks
Saka, Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri will all be stars for Arsenal and England for the next decade.
The three players have saved a lot of money for the Gunners, and soon, another exciting young player could follow in their footsteps.
Max Dowman is viewed as a massive talent by everyone who has seen him in England, and the 15-year-old is a superstar in the making.
Even people outside Arsenal, like Rio Ferdinand, are raving about Dowman and believe he is destined for greatness in the coming years.
