Man City have struck gold on “superb” gem

Manchester City’s troubles continue, and their fixture list isn’t getting much easier any time soon.

On Sunday, the Sky Blues were steamrollered 5-1 by Arsenal in North London, conceding four times after Erling Haaland had equalised with a towering header shortly after half time, completely capitulating as Pep Guardiola suffered their heaviest defeat of his managerial career.

This saw the Sky Blues slip down to fifth in the Premier League table, in a real battle for Champions League qualification.

On Saturday, the Citizens will face Leyton Orient in the FA Cup but, after that, they’ll meet holders Real Madrid in a two-legged Champions League tie, while their next four league matches are against Newcastle, Liverpool, Tottenham and then Nottingham Forest.

So, for Man City’s form to improve in the coming weeks, something needs to change, but do they already have the perfect youngster who could come in and help solve their issues both in and out of possession?

As it happens, he could be their answer to man of the moment; Myles Lewis-Skelly.

Myles Lewis-Skelly’s success at Arsenal

Of course, during Sunday’s 5-1 demolition, Arsenal’s Lewis-Skelly was the main character, putting in, as Sam Blitz of Sky Sports called it, a “dazzling… stunning performance”, scoring the third goal that got the party started, then imitating Haaland’s meditation celebration, after the Norwegian striker had asked the teenager who he was following September’s heated draw.

Lewis-Skelly made his senior debut off the bench at the Etihad earlier this season, shown a yellow card before even making it on the pitch, a rare feat, only starting a first-team game for the very first time against Monaco in mid-December.

Now though, he has cemented himself as the Gunners’ first-choice left-back, starting seven of nine Premier League games since then despite, as Arsenal youth expert Jeorge Bird notes, the fact he “mainly played in midfield” at youth level.

Alex Howell of BBC Sport outlines that Lewis-Skelly “received a standing ovation” for his performance in January’s North London derby win, while Simon Collings of the Evening Standard believes Arsenal “have found their next big academy star”.

The fact that both 18-year-old Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri, who’s still only 17, scored was a stark reminder of what Man City are missing right now, having sold many of their most highly-rated youngsters.

As outlined by Miguel Delaney of the Independent, Cole Palmer, Roméo Lavia, Morgan Rogers, Liam Delap and Taylor Harwood-Bellis are amongst the many Man City academy graduates who have been sold in recent years and are now staring at Premier League level.

Rob Dawson of ESPN notes that this has allowed the Citizens to spend big this January, with these academy sales allowing them to comply with Profit and Sustainability rules, but Jamie Jackson of the Guardian believes an “ageing squad” is a key reason behind Man City’s downturn in form, suggesting these academy graduates would’ve made an impact.

Nevertheless, is one who has stuck around being under-utilised, as Guardiola searches for solutions?

Manchester City’s answer to Lewis-Skelly

Earlier this season, Guardiola was full of praise for 20-year-old Rico Lewis, describing him as “so intelligent”, adding “he’s playing because he’s playing really good.”

Well, in more recent times, Lewis has not been playing, seeing just 18 minutes of action across the last four Premier League games, introduced at Ipswich with the score already 6-0, not starting any of the last seven matches in any competition.

Instead, Guardiola has favoured Matheus Nunes at right-back, with the Portuguese international starting all seven of those fixtures, despite the fact Michael Cox of the Athletic described Nunes as an “uncomfortable… makeshift right-back”, while Graham Ruthven of Forbes adds that he “doesn’t have the defensive instincts of a natural full-back”.

Lewis’ lack of recent action is a mystery, so let’s analyse how he and Lewis-Skelly compare as like-minded inverted full-backs who were more accustomed to playing in midfield in the youth teams.

Of course, as noted in the table, Lewis has played more than twice the number of minutes Lewis-Skelly has accumulated this season, with the Arsenal youngster only offering a small sample size.

That caveat aside, the numbers underline that Man City’s full-back, who’s vastly more experienced, is significantly better in possession while comparing favourably in most out-of-possession metrics too.

In the Premier League this season, only nine players have a higher pass completion percentage than Lewis’ 92.1%, of which four have attempted at least 150 fewer passes, while he is the youngest player in the top 39 of this statistic.

So, after Sam Lee of the Athletic praised Lewis’ “superb progress” earlier this season, his importance has faded, but he could be just the injection of youth, exuberance and quality that Man City need ahead of a nightmare run.