A senior Arsenal debut. A goal on his senior England debut. A senior Champions League debut.

A lot has happened to Myles Lewis-Skelly this season with the England full-back bursting onto the scene. It’s hard to think of another debut season that has gone so well for a player as initially, you’d imagine Mikel Arteta wasn’t going to give Lewis-Skelly this amount of minutes.

The most impressive thing about Lewis-Skelly is his utter confidence and nonchalance on the biggest stages.

Both Declan Rice and Thomas Tuchel sang his praises after the England game complimenting his ‘amazing confidence’.

It’s heartening from an Arsenal perspective that a teenager is receiving so much praise for his character and temperament more than anything.

Many a times young players burst onto the scene with raw talent but they normally need to refine key parts of their game to become the complete package. With Lewis-Skelly however the best praise he receives is playing with maturity and you can see this in his game.

The midfielder turned left back has been thrown into the deep end, this is not an Arsenal team oozing confidence, goals or even wins.

It’s an Arsenal side that has had to battle injuries and suspensions the entire season, Mikel Arteta knew all of this and still entrusted the full-back to have played 50 minutes or more in nine games.

Thomas Tuchel knew the full-back has barely scratched 18 Arsenal appearances and yet he also entrusted him with a full debut and the gamble has paid off.

What’s important to know, is that Lewis-Skelly has taken like a duck to water to Arsenal and England because he plays with utter fearlessness.

The forward run for his England goal to latch onto the end of the Jude Bellingham assist, the celebration after scoring vs Haaland to cap off the goal he scored, he knows he has to back himself and get forward at this level and he’s not afraid to do so or even make mistakes in the process.

It’s more vital that Arsenal have full-backs that can gallop forward because with the recent injuries, quality has been seriously lacking in the final third.

Lewis-Skelly could also solve another problem Arteta is having of late: central progression.

It feels as though Arsenal look lovely up until they get to the final third where they can’t find the same gaps in the middle of the pitch like they used to.

Lewis-Skelly has played the inverted full-back role well, in the same vein as Zinchenko did two seasons ago.

The courage and quality he has as a player mentally, bleeds into his game and in the modern game there is no hiding.

The full-back isn’t just championed for his temperament, robust aggression and maturity he has tactical nous and wins a remarkable amount of duels.

If he didn’t why would Mikel Arteta and Thomas Tuchel give him the amount of minutes they have?

The excitement comes from realising this is a player who sticks his chest out and is unfazed by pressure, environment or a big game and considering Arsenal play Real Madrid in just over two weeks, the English full-back could be in line to face some of the world’s best attackers.

At the very least, you can make no mistake Lewis-Skelly would not be afraid of the challenge.

It’s a testament to Arteta that though Lewis-Skelly has picked up two red cards (one of them rescinded by PGMOL) he’s an embodiment of the no prisoners taken, no pushovers backbone that Arsenal have established in recent years.

They used to be known as ‘soft touches’ now they’re derided by fanbases for being irritatingly good at the dark arts.

Lewis-Skelly is short but you wouldn’t think that with the way he launches into duels.

Sometimes it’s important to remember how young a lot of these players are. The full-back is eighteen years old, these are young kids growing up in the face of the limelight unfairly targeted by corners of the media.

It’s difficult for any 18 year old to establish themselves in a new environment, but Tuchel made it a point to say how good Lewis-Skelly was in camp.

Regardless of what happens this season, irrespective of the disappointments and lack of silverware, Arsenal may have a future star in the full-back position.