Declan Rice was singing the praises of Myles Lewis-Skelly following Friday’s 1-0 win at home to Ipswich Town.
Our academy graduate showed strength on the ball throughout the game and has never looked out of place since being introduced to the first team by Mikel Arteta.
Speaking after the three points were gained, Declan didn’t hold back with his compliments for Myles.
“He can go to the top, this kid is just special, very special. For an 18-year-old to be that good, that comfortable, that strong – it was like he was built in a lab!
“I said that to him the other day, it’s just ridiculous how good he is, but he has a long way to go. He’s so level-headed, he’s got a great family around him, I know his mum looks after him really well and all the boys at the training ground do too.
“We have a really good crop of youngsters coming through and he can be what he wants to be, he just needs to stay focused and always want more and he can do that.”
Another player who always seems to have an impact on matches is Leandro Trossard, and that was no different against Ipswich as it was his cross that was converted by Kai Havertz for our only goal of the game.
“He does it time and time again,” Declan agreed. “He can go on his left, can go on his right, creates, he scores, I don’t think he was feeling too well tonight as well so to put in a 90-minute shift like he’s done, credit to him. He’s one of my good friends here so he’s a special player.
“It’s a big win, obviously off the back off Christmas, really positive,” he added. “Ipswich have a lot of threat, a lot of quality so to obviously win was a positive.
“To break down a low block in 5-4-1 is really tough – teams keep coming here and doing it, it’s down to us to find that edge and tonight we were able to do that. A big three points, so positive and now we move on to Brentford on New Year’s Day, which will be another big game.
“They’re a great team with some really good individual quality players. They’ve had an amazing run at that stadium, it’s going to be tough but it’s down to us again to prepare and be ready.”
Wrapping up 2024 with another win, we extended our unbeaten run at Emirates Stadium to 17 matches by carrying out our defensive duties with aplomb.
“Teams now, to stop us, they’re just going to keep playing back fives and back fours, with a five in the middle and it’s down to us to break that down and find different ways to do that.
“We spent the whole first half in their half and in the second half, we had a bit of a sloppy start again which we need to improve [on]. As the game stretched and became open, we had two or three chances to kill the game off and it’s down to us to do that.”
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