Myles Lewis-Skelly says Arsenal summer signing has made everyone at the club better

Myles Lewis-Skelly has started all four of Arsenal’s opening Premier League games.

That is no small feat considering the £75million arrival of Bruno Guimaraes this summer. The Brazilian is undoubtedly one of the best midfielders in the Premier League and was signed specifically to add quality and depth to an already top-class midfield.

Not only has the 19-year-old held his own amid that competition, he’s been thriving, and his form has been rewarded with an England call-up for the first time in nearly a year.

In an interview with Sky Sports, via their YouTube channel, Lewis-Skelly was asked whether Guimaraes’ arrival makes his job harder and whether he relishes that kind of challenge.

“I think because of the quality of players we have it just raises the performance of everyone and that’s what’s supposed to happen,” the Arsenal teenager said.

“When you have great quality players, all we can do is raise each other’s level and in training everything’s getting raised. So that’s definitely a bonus.”

That is exactly the attitude Mikel Arteta wants from his players, and it reflects something Declan Rice touched on when he described Arsenal’s six ‘incredible’ midfield options. They have two World Cup winners in Martin Zubimendi and Mikel Merino who can’t get a starting spot.

The whole point of building a squad with such competition is to breed excellence, and that competition is about to be tested again. Today against Brighton, we’re expecting Bruno to start ahead of Lewis-Skelly following the former’s game-changing cameo at Sunderland.

Plus, Lewis-Skelly played 90 minutes against Ipswich in midweek while Bruno played just over an hour, suggesting Arteta was keeping the Brazilian fresh with today’s game in mind.

Lewis-Skelly will drop to the bench but he will be ready when called upon.