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A Teenage Arsenal With Myles Lewis Skelly becoming a sensation on his England debut, I decided to take a look at Arsenal players who were teenage debutants for England and this is what I came up with courtesy of http://englandfootballonline.com/TeamPlyrs/PlyrsYoung.html I also decided to pick my best 11 from all the players in the above list but with my usual criteria. Cliff Bastin - his scoring record stood a long time Players I considered Cliff Bastin Walcott Wiltshire Chambers Chamberlain Skelly Saka Sterling Jack Butland Duncan Edwards Jude Bellingham Wayne Rooney M Owen John Barnes Micah Richards Luke Shaw Rio Ferdinand Jimmy Greaves Ray Wilkins J Woodgate Wes Brown Team I selected Jack Butland Chambers, Skelly, Ferdinand, Wes Brown Chamberlain, Wiltshire, Bellingham Saka, Bastin, Walcott Theo Walcott - still the youngest player ever to play for England Cliff Bastin 21 caps 12 goals Theo Walcott 47 caps 8 goals Jack Wiltshire 34 caps 2 goals Calum Chambers 3 caps 0 goals Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain 35 caps 7 goals Myles Lewis Skelly 2 caps 1 goal Bukayo Saka 43 caps 12 goals How I made my selection Raheem Sterling also made it but I don’t feel he should be on the list as he didn’t play for Arsenal and England at the same time so far and maybe never will. With seven players I couldn’t make a team but I have decided to automatically include Arsenal players and pick the best of the rest. I also stuck to players from my own era although I included the legendary Cliff Bastin as Arsenal players were automatic. I filled the team out with Jack Butland in goal. Goalkeepers rarely get a teenage chance nor do defenders so pickings were harder there. I went for Chambers and Skelly as full backs and Rio Ferdinand as the only true top class defender from the rest. I chose Wes Brown to partner him but with 23 England caps he can hardly be called a legend. Should I have included Raheem Sterling? Attack and midfield had plenty of options but after deciding that Duncan Edwards, being before my time, couldn’t be included I left him out despite a lot of pundits reckoning him to be the greatest ever. I decided on a 4 3 3 and put Chamberlain, Wiltshire and Jude Bellingham in there. Ray Wilkins was also a serious contender but Bellingham really looks class. A very strong front three Upfront I put Saka, Bastin and Walcott, with Wayne Rooney, Jimmy Greaves, John Barnes and Michael Owen strong contenders. It is a strong side and as a few of these are still playing it could get even better. Nwaneri could easily come in there soon as well. Saka - Our best teenager ever? The fact that there are only 69 teenagers to play for England shows how unusual it is to get such a chance. Players have rarely come through the academy to the first team at that age so they won’t be picked. It does happen at small countries as academy players at top teams are considered better options than players who have never got out of the lower divisions. Many Irish players have this distinction with Robbie Keane among the most prominent. Jack Butland was the only goalkeeper I noticed on the list I feel only Bukayo Saka of the above is a contender for playing in the greatest English team of all time although Skelly and Nwaneri may make that category over time. Walcott, surprisingly, has the most caps although surely Saka will overtake him. Saka does have the most goals along with Cliff Bastin although Bastin achieved his in only 21 games. He must have been some player. Many players don’t make it For those of you who are younger among my readers, I can assure you of one thing, Walcott, Wiltshire, Chambers and Oxlade-Chamberlain were players who we were pretty certain, in the early days of their careers, would go on to true greatness. Injuries were the bane of their lives and they never quite managed to hit the heights their talent would surely have taken them. I have read that Saka’s injury is among that category in that it can be difficult to fully recover from. He is a player I want to see back to his best and, for me, if they waited until they were sure, I would not object. Yes, he would be a great boost for our small hope in the Premier League and against Real Madrid and the rest in the Champions League but I would prefer to take no chances. We need him to be at his best. I have waited all my life for Champions League success and this year may be one of our best chances but still I would view Saka’s career as more important. Ethan Nwaneri - could he be our next teenager to play for England? Arsenal, with seven teenage players, are among the top teams to have had many players with such a distinction. Max Dorman is already touted as being the next big thing and let’s hope that happens. Judging by the past, a goalkeeper and defenders are the most rare so it might take some time until we can fit the rest of the team but we are getting there, and I guess maybe Sterling has a right to be included. He is an Arsenal player who played for England at 17. I wasn’t sure if it was fair to include him. Our superstar teenagers Myles Lewis-Skelly prompted this discussion and having seen him live a few times now I can say I just love watching him play. And I really love how the big superstar names around him like Partey, Jorginho, Odegaard, Rice, etc., have no problem giving him the ball knowing that he can do great things with it. Nwaneri the same. They know giving these players the ball is the right thing to do, they are fearless, they are strong, and superb footballers. They could be the mainstays of the team for many years. We need to nurture them, support them, allow them to grow and make mistakes, and we could have the new Xavi and Iniesta for example. Both have an eye for goal as well and it is difficult to be sure what their final positions could be. Both must be worth a fortune so we must keep them. And also to encourage the new kids coming along. Myles Lewis-Skelly - ready to become a great? Excelsior to the teenagers and c’mon the Arsenal.

Erling Haaland is the difference Those of you with long memories may remember this blog at the start of the last season when I asked could we win the Premier League and did so by comparing City’s likely top 11 against Arsenal’s. I struggled to put any of Arsenal above a City player but I gave a draw between Jesus and Haaland on the basis that Jesus is proven in the PL and Haaland might not succeed as greats have not before him, one notable such was Andriy Shevchenko, who I believed was going to make Chelsea unstoppable. I also said that this was probably going to make me look foolish as I expected Haaland to shine. He did, in an unbelievable way. Pep, the Spanish guardian of the Viking god So, honestly, have you ever seen a better striker? I can’t think of any and I have been watching football for a long time. He had 52 in all competitions last season in 53 matches. Arsenal had 103 in 49 matches. So one guy gets more than half of all our players? He has 8 goals from 9 appearances so far. We have 15 from 8. So he is still scoring more than half our goals already? City get the Viking God, not Arsenal If he stays fit, I think he may be the main reason that City do extraordinarily well again, leaving the lesser teams to pick up the scraps. The fact that City changed their style of play to suit this machine tells you everything about him. Now, it seems he wanted to come to Arsenal, and Odegaard was pushing for this but he elected to go to City and nobody could blame him. Barring City getting punished for irregularities, he will win lots of trophies and Arsenal will struggle to get the big ones. Sterling's record to go? I want to put him into Arsenal terms. He has 62 goals for City already. Many big Arsenal names have fewer for us. Kanu has 44, Wiltord 49, John Radford and Kevin Campbell 53, Fabregas has 57. They all played for many years for us. If Haaland gets 53 again he will jump up into 6th place above Olivier Giroud on 105. He was the fastest to 50 goal contributions since they started tracking such things. If he gets similar figures for next season 2024/5 he will be pushing Ian Wright’s record. It is incredible. Bye bye Sterling’s record? Of course it may not happen. He may lose form, get injured, lose confidence, in fact anything could go wrong, but I have a feeling that this guy will keep pumping in the goals. For City, most probably. If he does manage 50 plus he will jump up into 3rd on City’s all time list behind Raheem Sterling on 131 and Sergio Aguerro on 260. Aguerro’s is a good target but Sterling’s certainly isn’t. 500 for Haaland, why not? Would he have scored so many for Arsenal? I don’t see why not, but Arteta would have to be humble enough to be willing to change Arsenal’s style of play to accommodate him. Pep, the modern day genius did. The point about Haaland is that he doesn’t get many touches. He makes many runs, often into great positions but regularly doesn’t get the ball. And so he is the epitome of the old commentators cry, “He did nothing in the game except score a hat trick.” Arteta too much of a purist for Haaland? Arteta seems to prize hard work above all else, and a guy who doesn’t seem to do much except score may be a big ask for him. A long ball aimed at De Bruyne and Haaland may feel a bit Sam Allardyce to Arteta. Plus Pep has the assurance of a guy who has won big trophies at big clubs. Arteta is having his first go. He may have felt it was too large a risk with the ball to go long. I guess we will never know. Would Arteta have controlled him or unleashed him like Pep Nobody else among the top teams play like City do now. Yes, City have a strong pressing game aimed at getting the ball back quickly as do all the major teams but Pep is willing to lose it by directing all efforts ultimately at the Norwegian. All their players know that this guy is unique. He will win trophies for them. They will get caps and acclaim as winners. Is there anyone for us out there? Despite all the goals and the big transfer fee allied to the incredible hype, he seems a very likable person. I reckon he would have loved Arteta’s Arsenal as Odegaard worked his De Bruyne magic for him. I think Haaland would have been the missing link, the goalscorer that we have been waiting for since Henry. Although Henry could score by himself and that is not really Haaland’s forte. Henry could get us the win. Haaland is getting them the win. And there is one big advantage of the long ball, so beloved of all the underdogs everywhere, you can keep your players back, ready to fight if the ball is lost. Ivan Toney the Wright guy? I do not see any one else out there in the Premier League who might come to us. Ivan Toney is being promulgated but, while he will bring a physicality and a target to all our incredibly talented suppliers, I am not really convinced of his class. Ivan Toney - can we take a bet on him? But he does seem the best option there is. I feel he would score for us. He could supply enough of them to give City a very hard time and, if he blooms totally by being surrounded by Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli, Trossard, Jesus, etc., and knocking in 30 plus a season then City had better beware. Ian could always score for us We are scoring lots of goals at the moment without our strikers knocking in too many. What would we be like with a striker who would score lots of goals? I suspect it is the missing link. We didn’t get Haaland but we need to get as close as possible to the next best thing. Maybe Toney is that. If he turns out to be an Arsenal player not a Brentford one, January could be interesting yet. Another gear in our car would be very nice at that point. And hey, Ian Wright was 27 when he joined us and scoring for a lower London team when he came, same as Toney now. Could he be our new Ian Wright Wright Wright?