‘It’s scary’ – How Myles Lewis-Skelly and other teenagers have stamped their mark on the Premier League this season
Updated 17/01/2025 at 06:58 GMT
Myles Lewis-Skelly rightly drew rave reviews for his performance against Tottenham Hotspur in the north London derby live on TNT Sports and discovery+ on Wednesday evening. The 18-year-old was a standout performer and is one of a number of teenaged players making waves across the Premier League this season. Pete Sharland argues that the composure of these players is the biggest factor.
'He has personality, an attitude' - Arteta praises 'phenomenal' Lewis-Skelly
Video credit: TNT Sports
Playing young players remains a huge risk-reward balancing act for a manager.
It almost always gains favour from supporters, who love seeing youngsters, even those not from the academy, given their chance. However, they can be prone to lapses in concentration and errors.
If they are a success, though, they become a cost-effective solution to a problem that otherwise would cost millions to address. And that is playing out across the Premier League right now in quite a fascinating development.
The English top flight might be its own beast in terms of extortionate transfer fees, but this season has shown just how valuable proper investment in a team’s youth set-up – or buying the right young players - can be.
What has been particularly interesting this season has been the composure and calmness of the youngsters.
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On Wednesday evening live on TNT Sports and discovery+, 18-year-old Myles Lewis-Skelly put in a performance for the ages in the north London derby. The teenage midfielder won two tackles, four of his five duels, made two interceptions and two clearances whilst completing 94% of his passes. All in front of new England manager Thomas Tuchel.
This is what Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice told the TNT Sports panel after the game.
"It’s scary. The 18-year-olds now have got no fear, no fear whatsoever," Rice said.
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Rice likens Lewis-Skelly to former Spurs midfielder Dembele – ‘Got no fear’
Video credit: TNT Sports
"There were four or five times in the second half where he uses his body to get away from someone. Sometimes it’s risky, but to do that at 18 and show the personality and character, it’s unbelievable.
"He’s a midfielder by trade. He can play 6, play 8, obviously he’s come into the team and played left-back. It suits him coming inside.
"To know these roles and understand what he’s learning now at 18, it’s unbelievable. It’s only going to stand him in good stead.
"Who knows what [the] England [national team] holds for him, but I know they think highly of him there. There is a lot [of] competition for places all over the pitch for England and we all need to keep performing for the new manager."
His club manager Mikel Arteta was equally effusive in his praise when talking to TNT Sports.
"He was phenomenal today I think, he has real personality, he has so much trust in himself, he has a real attitude about him.
"You have to play against [Dejan] Kulusevski and [Brennan] Johnson here, it’s not easy and the way he handled the situation and the occasion as well it was top I think."
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'He has personality, an attitude' - Arteta praises 'phenomenal' Lewis-Skelly
Video credit: TNT Sports
But it’s not just Lewis-Skelly.
This season, seven teenagers have already logged over 500 minutes in the Premier League. It is just a little over halfway through the season, so to put this into context, 14 teenagers have logged over 1,000 minutes in a season in the past four years. That’s an average of just under four per season; we are currently tracking at double that.
This is a continuation of a pattern - in 2023/24, six players (Alejandro Garnacho, Wilson Odobert, Kobbie Mainoo, Facundo Bouanotte, Evan Ferguson and Lewis Miley) reached the 1,000 minute mark.
Table for top ten teenage players by minutes in 2024-25 Premier League season
| Player | Club | Games Played | Minutes Played | Minutes per game |
| Tyler Dibling | Southampton | 19 | 1168 | 61 |
| Kobbie Mainoo | Manchester United | 14 | 1102 | 79 |
| Dean Huijsen | Bournemouth | 15 | 970 | 65 |
| Facundo Bounanotte | Brighton | 14 | 923 | 66 |
| Jack Hinshelwood | Brighton | 10 | 842 | 84 |
| Rico Lewis | Manchester City | 10 | 772 | 77 |
| Archie Gray | Tottenham Hotspur | 14 | 687 | 49 |
| Lucas Bergvall | Tottenham Hotspur | 14 | 374 | 27 |
| Myles Lewis-Skelly | Arsenal | 7 | 331 | 47 |
| Leny Yoro | Manchester United | 7 | 248 | 35 |
So what has caused the rise in playing time for teenagers?
Injuries are a prominent reason. A lot of these players have been given the chance because of wide-spread absences in one position. Spurs are an example: Lucas Bergvall and Archie Gray have featured regularly – including against Arsenal in the derby on Wednesday evening – and Josh Acheampong is another example, at Chelsea.
Speaking of Bergvall and Gray, here’s Rice on them again to TNT after the game.
"Do you know what, as well, I’m going to mention them because they’re Spurs players, but Archie Gray and [Lucas] Bergvall, they’re both 18 as well.
"They’re playing week in and week out – Mikey Moore – there’s guys in the Premier League now that are playing and they’re younger and younger and younger, and they’re just fearless. It is so good to see."
And that brings us to the second thing, which is that they are there on merit. These kids are often earning their playing time and a lot of that does come down to composure on the ball. On a fundamental level, this shouldn’t be too surprising. We are living in an era of football where it has never been more important to be comfortable on the ball and, as such, academies across the country (and indeed the world) are putting extra emphasis in this area.
Here’s what Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca said about starting Acheampong for the second consecutive game ahead of the 2-2 draw with Bournemouth.
"He’s doing well to be honest, since we started he has been doing well. I’ve already said many times with young players you have to find the right moment and he’s good on the ball, he’s good off the ball, he’s serious, he’s humble and we’re happy."
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Highlights: Late James free-kick rescues point for Chelsea in four-goal thriller against Bournemouth
Video credit: TNT Sports
TNT Sports pundit and former Chelsea forward Eni Aluko echoed this, talking about the kind of comfort Acheampong has on the ball.
"I really like him, this is what you want to see from a modern centre-back, stepping out, being that extra player in midfield and he’s really good at this [passing].
"Not a lot of centre-backs will do this but this is what they teach in the academies. How can you play out and it’s also important the other side of it. Modern centre-backs everyone wants to do this, have the ball but can you defend as well?"
This is born out in the stats. Bergvall and Gray both have passing accuracies of 91% in the Premier League this season, so does Rico Lewis at Manchester City. The Arsenal duo of Ethan Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly are at 93% and 96% respectively. Even Mainoo, who’s much more of an all-action player in a chaotic situation is at 87%.
But the fact that they’re being coached in this fashion in the academies shouldn’t detract from what these young players are doing. They are still coming into the most competitive and intense league in the world, playing for some of the biggest clubs in the world and not looking out of place.
Gone are the days where managers would throw on a young player to "run around a bit and make something happen", these players know how to use the ball sensibly, and you can see it from watching them that they aren’t making scared passes, but they are often progressive passes that help move the team up the pitch. It is now going to be interesting to watch to see whether clubs adjust their squad-building policies, and we see an even bigger increase both for the rest of the season and for next.
Stream the 2024-25 Premier League season live on TNT Sports and discovery+
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