Mikel Arteta reveals why he told Myles Lewis-Skelly to change from being a midfielder to left back after academy graduate’s first-team breakthrough

Mikel Arteta said he instructed Myles Lewis-Skelly at the start of the season that the teenager would need to change from being a midfielder to left back if he wants a chance of playing.

The 18-year-old’s assured midweek performance against Tottenham was widely lauded and his substitution in the second half went viral.

As Arsenal prepared to defend a Spurs corner, Lewis-Skelly — their youngest player to start a Premier League north London derby since Cesc Fabregas in 2005 — threw up his arms to the crowd, receiving a big ovation.

The teenager was a midfielder in the academy, but has since been moulded into an inverted left back under Arteta. It has seen Lewis-Skelly usurp Oleksandr Zinchenko and Kieran Tierney in the position, while Riccardo Calafiori remains injured.

Ahead of Arsenal’s match against Aston Villa on Saturday, Arteta said: ‘To give him a chance with the product we had in the academy, the moment I saw him, the only way I could think was to change his position.

‘You want to have a chance here. I spoke to him and I said, “This (left back) is where you’re going to have it”.

Mikel Arteta has revealed why he told the teenager to change from midfielder to left back

He put in another assured performance in the north London derby victory over Tottenham

‘Because I think it fits a lot of his quality, the way that we play and it fits because we have necessities in the position. So we started to work on that. He put it into it straight away with the personality that he has. The other thing is very obvious and now he’s doing it.’

On the left back role, he added: ‘I think physically, very different demands. You’re facing wingers a lot of times in that position. You have to be part of the defensive line.

‘You have to know when to release, when to not. When the ball is on your side, how you have to defend the box. Something that he wasn’t used to do that. And then all the attacking process on top of that.

‘So it’s quite a lot. He’s dealing with that in a great way physically as well. Physically he’s matured a lot in the last year or so. And they had a great performance with that (against Spurs).’