"If he wanted to use that moment to mock me, that's fair enough for him," Erling Haaland said. "They won the game 5-1. So yeah, they got me." Hard to argue with that. But football has a way of settling scores without anyone lifting a finger.
Myles Lewis-Skelly's rise was genuinely eye-catching. As a teenager breaking into Arsenal's first team at left-back, he wasn't just holding his own — he was aggressive, technically assured, and clearly unafraid of the moment. When Manchester City came to the Emirates, Lewis-Skelly came off the bench and immediately got in Haaland's face. The Norwegian, baffled, asked who he even was.
A few months later, Lewis-Skelly answered that question. He weaved past two City defenders, scored from the left channel, and sat down cross-legged in Haaland's signature zen pose. Then he posted it on social media. Caption: "Keep it humble." The reference was pointed — earlier in the season, Haaland had told Arsenal players exactly that.
The bit nobody wants to say out loud
It was a good moment. Fun, cheeky, the kind of thing that gets clipped forever. But ex-player Alan McInally said what a lot of people were thinking: "When you're 18 years old and you start impersonating someone that's won the league and Champions League, you need to be careful — because you're going to take a fall."
That fall came faster than expected.
Arsenal signed Piero Hincapié last summer, and Lewis-Skelly went from first-choice to third almost overnight — behind Hincapié and Riccardo Calafiori. He was dropped from the England squad. Arteta, asked about keeping him motivated, offered careful manager-speak: "When you look at his age, what he's already done, he's just remarkable. So don't look at the one moment what is happening for you."
That's the kind of thing managers say when they can't promise a player anything.
A loan move that changes the picture
Sources in the agents industry, cited by CaughtOffside, say Arsenal are now considering sending Lewis-Skelly out on loan for the 2026/27 season. The logic is sound — regular top-flight minutes would do more for his development than warming the bench at the Emirates. But it also means the path he once seemed to own outright is now genuinely uncertain.
His talent hasn't disappeared. The ability that made him look destined for Arsenal's first team is still there. But left-back at a top Premier League club just got a lot more congested, and clubs tracking his situation will be recalibrating accordingly — his market value tied directly to minutes he's currently not getting.
Haaland, for his part, moved on immediately. Lewis-Skelly is still figuring out where he fits.
