On the final day of the 2014-15 Premier League campaign, as Arsenal defeated West Bromwich Albion in a routine 4-1 victory, the 60,000 supporters inside the Emirates Stadium were given a brief glimpse of the club’s future. They could not have known that they were also witnessing a small piece of Arsenal history.
At half-time of that match, for the first time in their lives, Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly stepped on to the Emirates pitch in front of the Arsenal fans. They were only eight years old, waving and clapping their hands as they were introduced to the home crowd along with the other members of the club’s new under-nines squad.
Even at that tender age, Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly were already the closest of friends. And so, as they stared around the stadium, giddily taking it all in, it was only natural that they would stand alongside each other in the centre circle. They had done the same in a squad photograph earlier that day, with Nwaneri standing immediately to Lewis-Skelly’s right.
‘Best friends since we were six – crazy, isn’t it?’
Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly were inseparable back then. Almost a decade later, they remain inseparable now. They have both completed the journey from under-nine level to Mikel Areta’s first team, and their rise is all the more extraordinary because they have done it together. Two best friends, climbing the ranks in tandem and becoming Premier League stars at the same time. It felt fitting that, in Sunday’s 5-1 thrashing of Manchester City, they both scored spectacular goals.
It is rare enough for a club such as Arsenal to have one teenager who can make a genuine impact on the first team. To have two from the same age group, and for them to have been such close companions for so long, seems truly remarkable. “Myself and Myles have been best friends since we were six,” Nwaneri has said. “Now we’re in the Arsenal team together. It’s crazy, isn’t it?”
Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri’s friendship dates back to their time together at Chelsea, where they both played before joining Arsenal at the age of eight. Throughout their time in the Arsenal academy, even from those early days, they were always regarded as two of the most talented prospects.
Indeed, both players made their debuts for Arsenal’s under-18 team in the same game, against Reading. Both were only 14 at the time and, typically, both scored eye-catching goals.
“It was always Ethan and Myles,” says Dan Micciche, who coached the pair for Arsenal’s under-18s and under-16s. “It was like they were one, even though they are two different people. They were so used to doing everything together.”
Arteta was made aware of these two prodigious talents within a few days of his appointment as Arsenal’s head coach in December 2019. “A member of staff asked me to go and see Mikel,” remembers Micciche. “We were speaking in Italian and he was asking me if there were any players he needed to be aware of. Immediately I told him about those two.
“He actually asked for video of them, so I sat with the analyst and put together montages of them both. So within his first month he knew who they were. He was aware straightaway.”
A curious aspect of the Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly story is that their personalities are so different. Lewis-Skelly is much more of an extroverted character, always asking questions on the training ground and willing to challenge senior opponents (his imitation of Erling Haaland’s celebration on Sunday has already earned him cult hero status at Arsenal). Nwaneri, by contrast, is far more reserved.
On and off the pitch, the two players have helped each other to reach this thrilling point in their careers. Nwaneri was generally invited to play in higher age groups shortly before Lewis-Skelly, for example, so he was there to provide support for his friend when they were reunited on the pitch again.
Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly attended different schools but the nature of life as gifted young athletes means they have regularly studied together on tours and trips. At the under-17 European Championships in 2023, the two players revised alongside each other in Hungarian hotels as they prepared for their GCSEs. They also shared online classes.
They live close together in London and they have been known to train with each other, under the guidance of Nwaneri’s father, if there were no sessions taking place at Arsenal. Lewis-Skelly would simply cycle to join Nwaneri. One source tells Telegraph Sport that they are “like brothers”, encouraging and pushing each other.
Nwaneri banned from Arsenal dressing room – for one more month
Strangely enough, the two teenagers are actually further apart on match days now than at any point in their careers. As Nwaneri does not turn 18 until March, safeguarding restrictions prevent him from getting changed in Arsenal’s first-team dressing room. Lewis-Skelly turned 18 in September, so is therefore allowed in with the senior stars.
“Ethan cannot be in our dressing room still,” said Arteta on Tuesday. “He needs to get dressed somewhere else. So to have somebody close to him who has that trust, that confidence, that link, I think it is lucky. They are very lucky to have each other.”
During their time in the youth ranks, it was always clear that these two players had the potential to reach the highest level. “Boys like this usually come around once every 20 years,” says Micciche. “It was harder to find a weakness than to find a strength. They had that X-factor.
“They could learn things very quickly. They probably knew what the coach was about to say before he said it, because they had that football library already — and they could transfer information into delivery on the pitch.
“Maybe they also stood out a little bit because they were left-footed. Left footers are rare, and they had all the qualities. Athletic qualities, humility, hard-working, very driven. Whatever the challenge that was put in front of them, they delivered.”
That was the case back then, and it is evidently still the case now. Between them, Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly have made a combined 41 appearances for the Arsenal first team this season, without ever looking out of place.
Ahead of Wednesday’s League Cup semi-final, second leg against Newcastle United, Lewis-Skelly is the current first-choice left-back. Nwaneri, meanwhile, has scored seven goals this season, at a rate of 0.97 goals per 90 minutes. That is the best goals-per-minutes ratio of any player at any Premier League club this season.
It is a measure of their ability — and the education they received in the academy — that neither player is currently spending much time in their natural position. Lewis-Skelly was a box-to-box midfielder in the academy, while Nwaneri was generally a No 10. Now, Lewis-Skelly is thriving at left-back and Nwaneri has played most of his recent games on the wing.
Clearly, the presence of Nwaneri has helped Lewis-Skelly, and the presence of Lewis-Skelly has helped Nwaneri. Both players are crossing that enormous divide between academy football and senior action, and dealing with all of the scrutiny and challenges that come with it. They are doing so with a familiar face and a near-lifelong friend at their side. “There is a bond there,” said Arteta. “For them, it is special.”
