Gary Lineker suggested Arsenal’s dramatic improvement against Fulham coincided with Mikel Arteta’s decision to rest Martin Zubimendi.
The summer signing from Real Sociedad has been a near ever-present at the guts of the Gunners’ engine room and formed an efficient partnership alongside Declan Rice.
Zubimendi’s near fast adaptation has meant Myles Lewis-Skelly’s probabilities of getting a chance to play in his natural position have been blocked while the arrival of Piero Hincapie has meant he has hardly featured at left-back where he impressed during his breakthrough campaign.
With the games coming thick and fast over the course of the run-in, Mikel Arteta opted to take a big gamble on Saturday against Fulham and hand the Hale End Academy graduate a primary start in a more central role.
Arteta’s faith was rewarded by an excellent display that helped power Arsenal to a 3-0 win that saw them open a six-point gap, albeit having played two games more, at the highest of the table.
Whether Arteta is brave enough to maintain Lewis-Skelly within the team for the visit of Atletico Madrid in midweek stays to be seen, but Lineker couldn’t help but notice the elemental difference the 19-year-old made to Arsenal’s attacking threat.
‘I’m going to toss stuff in here because I feel there’s a fundamental difference between the Arsenal that we’ve seen in recent weeks,’ Linker told The Rest Is Football Podcast.
‘No disrespect to Zubimendi, but he’s a cautious player. He’s a defensive midfield player and he predominantly knocks it back.
‘I assumed Myles Lewis-Skelly got here in in a midfield position, not a left-back that’s moving into midfield. His first thought is to show and look forward and quickly.
‘I feel that basically enabled Arsenal to get it forward quicker. It was a little bit of a plan, they pushed the wingers higher. Saka was getting the ball in time to take someone on. I feel he made a fundamental difference.
‘It’s quite interesting because he’s a young player and we’ve known him as a full-back. But in that midfield area, the best way he was so positive and looking out forward.
‘Rice is a special player within the sense that he’s probably at his best when he’s running with the ball. But he’s also a player that tends to not search for forward passes particularly quickly. So I feel he really helped them.’
And after watching the teenager impress against seasoned Premier League opposition, Arteta admitted he could have made an error in holding back a player whose lack of game time has seen him linked with a move to Manchester United in the summertime.
‘He fully deserves it,’ said the Arsenal manager reflecting on Lewis-Skelly’s performance in a new-look engine room. ‘I’ve been tough on him.
‘He had a spectacular season last 12 months when he jumped into the primary team. He had some difficult moments after that, but he stayed very humble, very focused, very aligned with what we desired to do, and I knew he was ready.
‘He’s been showing in training each day the opportunities that he needed to play. He’s done it and today he really stepped up and I assumed he had an incredible performance.’
Asked why it had taken him so long to present Lewis-Skelly a probability to impress in midfield, he added: ’Because probably I don’t have a clue and perhaps I must have done it earlier, I don’t know.’
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