Arsenal: Mikel Arteta reveals key advice sparked Myles Lewis-Skelly breakthrough at left-back | OneFootball

Teenager was a midfielder through the age groups but shift to defence as brought first-team chances

Mikel Arteta has revealed he told Myles Lewis-Skelly to change positions so he could break into the Arsenal team.

The 18-year-old has excelled in the role and was one of Arsenal’s star performers in their win over Tottenham on Wednesday.

"If you want to have a chance here, I spoke to him and I said: ‘This is where you’re going to have it.’

“Because I think it fits a lot his quality, the way that we play and it fits because we have necessities in the position.

“So we started to work on that. He put it into it straight away with the personality that he has. The other thing is very obvious and now he’s doing it.

“Adapting to the role is not just on the defensive part. I think physically, very different demands. You’re facing wingers a lot of times in that position. You have to be part of the defensive line.

"You have to know when to release, when to not. When the ball is on your side, how you have to defend the box. Something that he wasn’t used to do that. And then all the attacking process on top of that.

“So it’s quite a lot. He’s dealing with that in a great way physically as well. Physically he’s matured a lot in the last year or so. And they had a great performance with that.”