Arsenal cast aside major positive in pursuit of Premier League title

Arsenal are on track for a 14th league title. When the Premier League leaders slip up, the chasers do too. It’s not over ‘til it’s over but that’s been a positive of the winter fixture schedule and the other contenders’ margin of error is shrinking.

Arsenal were beaten by Aston Villa but turned the tables just a few games later. They drew with Liverpool the day after Villa and Manchester City settled for draws and Chelsea were beaten at Fulham.

The Gunners then dropped points at Nottingham Forest on a weekend when the rest of the group that started out as the top six drew or lost too. Arsenal's lead grew by a point as a consequence.

The Premier League title is Arsenal’s top priority

The football gods aren’t making it easy for Mikel Arteta and Arsenal but the more opportunities missed elsewhere, the closer the Gunners are getting to glory.

There is, then, no reason whatsoever for complaint or disgruntlement about the details. If Arsenal hold their nerve between now and May, none of them will matter much in the hubbub of title jubilation.

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Nevertheless, the team’s strong position in the league table has been achieved at the expense of one of last season’s biggest positives at the Emirates Stadium.

Even as Arsenal succumbed to a third consecutive second-placed finish, supporters were treated to the emergence of a pair of young players in the first team. Opportunities for Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri have been much more limited this time around.

In 2024/25, senior England international left-back Lewis-Skelly started 15 matches in the Premier League. While he’s on track to appear in more league games in total this season, he has started just once.

Winger Nwaneri started 11 times in the league last season but hasn’t been named in Arteta’s 11 for any Premier League game in 2025/26. The 18-year-old has made just six appearances totalling 171 minutes.

The lack of an impact by the two teenagers during Arsenal’s most hopeful title tilt for years is giving the season a slightly different feel, for better or worse, and transfer speculation is the inevitable result.

It’s understood that Arsenal have no intention of letting Lewis-Skelly leave on loan or permanently this month but fresh reports indicate that Nwaneri will join Ligue 1 side Marseille on loan.

Whatever becomes of the pair this season, neither has cause to doubt their Arsenal future. Supporters would surely have enjoyed seeing them develop in north London this term but their time will come.

In FourFourTwo’s opinion, both Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri are elite talents who are as likely to benefit from a quieter season than suffer from it, and there is no indication that their long-term futures should take them anywhere else.

This is merely the way of things for very young players forcing their way into teams challenging at the top.

It’s likely that neither will feature as Arsenal tackle one of their biggest remaining challenges in the Premier League on Sunday.

Manchester United have been the other beneficiaries when the chasing pack has faltered, rising from seventh to fifth by winning last weekend’s Manchester derby.

Nwaneri was an unused substitute when Arsenal faced Manchester United at Old Trafford in their first game of the season. Lewis-Skelly, who has featured more frequently in the Champions League, came off the bench for 18 of his 312 Premier League minutes.

For now, Arsenal have bigger fish to fry.