{"id":328531,"date":"2026-05-03T15:12:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T09:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=328531"},"modified":"2026-05-03T15:12:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T09:42:45","slug":"darren-bent-predicts-mikel-arteta-will-drop-arsenal-star-against-atletico-madrid-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/03\/darren-bent-predicts-mikel-arteta-will-drop-arsenal-star-against-atletico-madrid-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Darren Bent predicts Mikel Arteta will drop Arsenal star against Atletico Madrid | Football"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Darren Bent claimed Myles Lewis-Skelly gave a top-level performance against Fulham (Picture: PLP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Darren Bent fears Myles Lewis-Skelly will find himself back on the bench against Atletico Madrid, despite delivering a \u201910 out of 10\u2032 performance against Fulham.<\/p>\n

The Hale End Academy graduate has found opportunities to come back by this season following his stellar breakthrough last term when he excelled as a makeshift left-back.<\/p>\n

With a Champions League semi-final second leg on the horizon, Mikel Arteta selected to ring the changes for Saturday\u2019s game against Fulham and gambled by handing Lewis-Skelly a primary ever start in his preferred role in the center of midfield. <\/p>\n

The 19-year-old rewarded his manager\u2019s faith with an all-action display but Bent fears it won\u2019t be enough to see him retain his place against Diego Simeone\u2019s side on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u2018Zubimendi will probably come back in because he\u2019s the more senior player,\u2019 Bent told Premier League Live. <\/p>\n

\u2018But I feel the manager will likely be taking a look at his performance today considering do you realize what if a game\u2019s happening against Atletico and it\u2019s not quite working, he\u2019ll haven’t any doubts in any respect. He knows he\u2019s adequate to play in there, go and play.<\/p>\n

I understand Zubimendi\u2019s been outstanding this season, perhaps he\u2019s faltered a little bit of late. <\/p>\n

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Myles Lewis-Skelly impressed Mikel Arteta against Fulham (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018But Myles Lewis-Skelly, that\u2019s not only a standard performance where you go he did OK, he did alright. He’s able to playing there, that was a top level performance.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018Bent did, nonetheless, suggest that with the games coming thick and fast, Arteta can have seen enough on Saturday to be confident that Lewis-Skelly could yet have a job to play in midfield through the remainder of the run-in.<\/p>\n

\u2018I genuinely think Mikel Arteta will likely be taking a look at that considering if he doesn\u2019t play against Atletico, he could defintely play against West Ham.<\/p>\n

\u2018I feel it\u2019s necessary to have the best players and evironment around him. Putting him alongside the likes of Declan and Eberechi Eze is vital. <\/p>\n

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Myles Lewis-Skelly began in midfield for Arsenal against Fulham (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018I feel Declan will all the time talk over with him. He had Mark Nolbe for him when he got in that West Ham team.<\/p>\n

\u2018I feel it was the right environment, the right opposition by way of a team that wasn\u2019t really going to press, although I assumed they\u2019d be higher. He was just outstanding today. <\/p>\n

\u2018All of the little bits he needed to do, breaking up play, passing the ball forwards. That was the important thing, too often in the previous couple of weeks we\u2019ve seen Arsenal players pass the buck and go backwards. <\/p>\n

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Darren Bent praised the role Declan Rice played in helping Myles Lewis-Skelly (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018That then allows the team to get back into shape after which it\u2019s hard to interrupt down. <\/p>\n

\u2018The moment Lewis-Skelly got it he was on the half-term then boom, where\u2019s Saka, where\u2019s Eze, where\u2019s Trossard. <\/p>\n

\u2018Then while you\u2019ve beaten that press early Arsenal can play within the areas they need.\u2019<\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: Mikel Arteta sends message to \u2018incredible\u2019 Manchester United transfer goal<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: Ray Parlour names Arsenal star who will leave as Gunners consider selling 4 players<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: Edwin van der Sar claims Arsenal star just isn’t \u2018world class\u2019\u2026 but Man Utd flop is<\/span><\/p>\n

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Darren Bent claimed Myles Lewis-Skelly gave a top-level performance against Fulham (Picture: PLP) Darren Bent fears Myles Lewis-Skelly will find himself back on the bench against Atletico Madrid, despite delivering a \u201910 out of 10\u2032 performance against Fulham. The Hale End Academy graduate has found opportunities to come back by this season following his stellar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":328532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20686],"tags":[2605,2604,15249,7618,7617,966,5479,3166,2603,4415,795],"class_list":["post-328531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-arsenal","tag-arteta","tag-atletico","tag-bent","tag-darren","tag-drop","tag-football","tag-madrid","tag-mikel","tag-predicts","tag-star"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328531"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":328534,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328531\/revisions\/328534"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}