Lewis-Skelly scores on his debut as Calafiori returns to London

Morning.

A quick Saturday morning blog for you, starting with an incredible England debut for Myles Lewis-Skelly. He was named in Thomas Tuchel’s first starting XI, and opened the scoring in the 20th minute. Jude Bellingham spotted his run, the pass was precision itself, and the close range finish put England 1-0 up. Watch the goal here, and it’s a record-breaker too.

18 – Aged 18 years and 176 days, Myles Lewis-Skelly is the youngest player in history to score on his senior England debut, surpassing Marcus Rashford’s record of 18 years and 209 days v Australia in May 2016. Rise.

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— OptaJoe (@optajoe.com) March 21, 2025 at 8:10 PM

What a fantastic moment for him, especially after a lot of noise around him in recent times. I’m pretty sure he hasn’t been exposed to the worst of what social media has had to ‘offer’, but his goal and performance simply underlines the fact that he is there on merit. He has earned his place through his performances and consistency for Arsenal, and there’s no better way to shut up those naysayers (and worse) than doing it on the pitch.

Speaking to ITV afterwards, he said:

I’m lost for words. I am so grateful for the manager to put trust in me. I am so happy. The fans made me feel at home so thank you to them. This past six months have gone so quickly. I stay in the present and I take every moment as it comes. Honestly, it is incredible. This is a day I’ll never forget.

While Tuchel himself said:

Amazing player. Amazing personality. He came into camp and showed straight away that it’s normal to fall in love with him. It is well deserved.

‘Normal to fall in love with him’, that’s so good. You can’t help but be delighted for MLS, regardless of your international affiliation, and it’s something he can take a lot from as his career continues to blossom. Declan Rice was also in action for England, providing an assist for the game’s second goal, while Jakub Kiwior and Thomas Partey played in wins for Poland and Ghana respectively. Ethan Nwaneri came on in the 89th minute of England U21s 5-3 defeat to France.

Today, Martin Odegaard will be in action for Norway as they travel to Moldova, and that’s it as far as Arsenal representation. Hopefully the captain comes through that one unscathed, and ideally finds a bit of form/rhythm to take back to North London after this and next weeks games.

Meanwhile, Riccardo Calafiori has returned to Arsenal for further assessment of the injury he sustained on Thursday evening. Some initial reports suggest he’ll be out for 2-3 weeks, but there’s been nothing official as yet. Fingers crossed that’s all it is. I do have to say, while it’s always frustrating to see a player get injured, I was a bit shocked – and I know I probably shouldn’t be – by some of the reaction I saw. I don’t really understand why there’s such a lack of empathy for one of our own players who has been hurt. Perhaps it’s because he was playing for his country, and we’ve had some experience in that regard, but even so, it’s not like he did anything wrong.

Injuries happen in football, and obviously in his case it’s not the first one he’s had since his signing last summer, but just some basic humanity wouldn’t go amiss. I realise it’s a small minority, and that social media platforms and Facebook comments aren’t necessarily a great barometer for how most people think, but I find it grating when the third youngest player in our squad picks up a problem and the response from that minority is heartless invective.

I thought Mikel Merino said something interesting in his interview this week when talking about internationals:

People complain about internationals but if there weren’t any, they would fill it with club competitions. We would be playing anyway, just different games. The good thing about this is it’s a change, a different environment and the selección is a family. That gives you a freshness mentally. The calendar is very hard and hopefully something can be done to alleviate the tiredness and injuries, the minutes played. But for me coming here is always very positive.

So, as much as we get frustrated with internationals, the players see it differently. I think they always have, and the point about them filling the gap with more club games is probably right (look at that absurd new Club World Cup thing). In any event, international football isn’t going anywhere, and I can’t see the schedule getting any less busy. As Mikel Arteta, and other managers have said, the only real solution at this point is bigger squads. But who knows if or when that might happen. Perhaps when teams literally start running out of players because half of them are banjaxed.

Right, I’m gonna leave it there for now. Have a great Saturday folks, more here tomorrow.