Arsenal will hope to return to the top of the Premier League table for a few hours at least on Saturday.
Mikel Arteta’s Gunners take on Unai Emery’s Aston Villa in the day’s early kickoff.
Arsenal have suffered a downturn in form, picking up just one point from their last three league games.
This led to Manchester City leapfrogging them to the top with a 3-1 win at the Emirates in midweek.
With the controversially quick turnaround in games, Arsenal have the chance to strike the first blow this matchday.
Arteta has been putting his players through their paces in training.
On Friday, Arsenal published photos of their players taking part in their latest session at London Colney.
Arteta called up several academy players, including the impressive Myles Lewis-Skelly.
‘Absolutely outstanding’
Despite being just 16, the midfielder is already playing at Under-21 level.
Last year, Jeorge Bird wrote on his website that Lewis-Skelly is ‘undoubtedly one of the most talented youngsters at the club and has much potential’.
The Arsenal youth team expert added: ‘Lewis-Skelly frequently draws fouls from opposition players and relishes pushing forward to support the attack.
‘He has excellent technical ability and is now looking to develop defensively.’
Meanwhile, a former, unnamed Arsenal told VAVEL that Lewis-Skelly is on par with Ethan Nwaneri in terms of talent and potential.
‘At the moment, we’ve got two U16s where if I had to pick out a top ten of all the players I’ve known of in 30 years of being at Arsenal these two would be in my top ten, they’re outstanding,’ said the coach.
‘One is a boy called Myles Lewis-Skelly and the other is Ethan Nwaneri.
‘And my biggest worry about them is if we can keep them. Because I would say all the biggest clubs in the country will be sniffing around trying to get them.
‘These two boys are absolutely outstanding. And I would go as far as to say that if they’re not given a chance in the first team in two or three years then we’re all guessing!’
On Twitter, fans have compared Lewis-Skelly to PSG gem Warren Zaire-Emery and former Belgium ace Mousa Dembele.
Lewis-Skelly is a top talent and it’s great to see him feature in first-team training at such a young age.
By next year, he could be a fixture in the Under-21s. Maybe he could even get himself a loan to an EFL club.
SOURCE: tbrfootball.com
