{"id":328975,"date":"2026-05-04T13:33:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T08:03:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=328975"},"modified":"2026-05-04T13:33:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T08:03:37","slug":"gary-lineker-claims-arsenal-improved-without-cautious-51million-star-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/04\/gary-lineker-claims-arsenal-improved-without-cautious-51million-star-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Gary Lineker claims Arsenal improved without ‘cautious’ \u00a351million star | Football"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Gary Lineker was impressed with Arsenal\u2019s performance against Fulham (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gary Lineker suggested Arsenal\u2019s dramatic improvement against Fulham coincided with Mikel Arteta\u2019s decision to rest Martin Zubimendi. <\/p>\n

The summer signing from Real Sociedad has been a near ever-present at the guts of the Gunners\u2019 engine room and formed an efficient partnership alongside Declan Rice.<\/p>\n

Zubimendi\u2019s near fast adaptation has meant Myles Lewis-Skelly\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Arteta\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t help but notice the elemental difference the 19-year-old made to Arsenal\u2019s attacking threat. <\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m going to toss stuff in here because I feel there\u2019s a fundamental difference between the Arsenal that we\u2019ve seen in recent weeks,\u2019 Linker told The Rest Is Football Podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

\u2018No disrespect to Zubimendi, but he\u2019s a cautious player. He\u2019s a defensive midfield player and he predominantly knocks it back.<\/p>\n

\u2018I assumed Myles Lewis-Skelly got here in in a midfield position, not a left-back that\u2019s moving into midfield. His first thought is to show and look forward and quickly.<\/p>\n

\u2018I 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.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s quite interesting because he\u2019s a young player and we\u2019ve known him as a full-back. But in that midfield area, the best way he was so positive and looking out forward.<\/p>\n

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

\u2018Rice is a special player within the sense that he\u2019s probably at his best when he\u2019s running with the ball. But he\u2019s also a player that tends to not search for forward passes particularly quickly. So I feel he really helped them.\u2019<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u2018He fully deserves it,\u2019 said the Arsenal manager reflecting on Lewis-Skelly\u2019s performance in a new-look engine room. \u2018I\u2019ve been tough on him.<\/p>\n

\u2018He 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.<\/p>\n

\u2018He\u2019s been showing in training each day the opportunities that he needed to play. He\u2019s done it and today he really stepped up and I assumed he had an incredible performance.\u2019<\/p>\n

Asked why it had taken him so long to present Lewis-Skelly a probability to impress in midfield, he added: \u2019Because probably I don\u2019t have a clue and perhaps I must have done it earlier, I don\u2019t know.\u2019<\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: Chelsea\u2019s \u00a340m signing told he must \u2018put his ego in check\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: Rio Ferdinand tells Manchester United to sign \u2018wonderful\u2019 \u00a380m midfielder as an alternative of Bruno Guimaraes<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/use><\/svg>MORE: Petr Cech says \u00a325m Chelsea star has \u2018huge, huge potential\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

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Gary Lineker was impressed with Arsenal\u2019s performance against Fulham (Picture: Getty) Gary Lineker suggested Arsenal\u2019s dramatic improvement against Fulham coincided with Mikel Arteta\u2019s decision to rest Martin Zubimendi. The summer signing from Real Sociedad has been a near ever-present at the guts of the Gunners\u2019 engine room and formed an efficient partnership alongside Declan Rice. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":328976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20686],"tags":[32001,2605,14062,1464,5479,14114,7384,15880,795],"class_list":["post-328975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-51million","tag-arsenal","tag-cautious","tag-claims","tag-football","tag-gary","tag-improved","tag-lineker","tag-star"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328975","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=328975"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":328978,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328975\/revisions\/328978"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}