Declan Rice was full of praise for Myles Lewis-Skelly after Arsenal’s win (Image: TNT SPORTS)
hailed two “fearless” players after secured a huge north London derby victory on Wednesday night. The Gunners midfielder reserved special praise for after their 2-1 win.
Rice spoke to TNT Sports alongside host Lynsey Hipgrave and pundits Rio Ferdinand, Peter Crouch and Martin Keown after helping close the gap on leaders to four points.
After Son Heung-min had put Spurs 1-0 up, two goals in four first-half minutes – an own goal from forced by Gabriel Magalhaes’ header and a Leandro Trossard strike – took the home side to a huge three points.
Lewis-Skelly became the second-youngest player ever to start in a north London derby at 18 and was excellent from left-back despite naturally being a midfielder.
Rice said of the academy graduate to TNT: “The young boy Myles, again, he’s just unbelievable. For 18, what he showed tonight was just ridiculous. It’s scary. The 18-year-olds today, they’ve got no fear.
Myles Lewis-Skelly shone for Arsenal against Tottenham (Image: GETTY)
“They’ve got no fear whatsoever. He’s got that Moussa Dembele trait where he uses his body to get away from stuff. Sometimes yes OK it’s risky but to show that at 18 and the personality and character… honestly he’s unbelievable.”
But when quizzed further by Ferdinand, England midfielder Rice then chose to bring up two Spurs teenagers including his compatriot Archie Gray. He added: “Do you know what as well, I’m going to mention them because they’re Spurs players.
“Archie Gray and [Lucas] Bergvall. They’re both 18 as well. They’re playing week-in, week-out. Mikey Moore.
“There’s guys in the that are playing and they’re younger and younger and younger and they’ve got no fear. It’s so good to see.”
Rice agreed with Keown’s assessment that “the sky is the limit” for England youth international Lewis-Skelly and continued: “He is a midfielder by trade, you know. He can play six, he can play eight, obviously he’s come into the team playing left-back.
Declan Rice name-dropped Archie Gray in his post-match interview (Image: GETTY)
“It suits him coming inside. To know these roles and understand what he’s learning now at 18 is unbelievable, it’s only going to stand him in good stead. Who knows what England holds for him.
“I know they think highly of him there and there’s a lot of competition all over the places for England so we all need to keep performing for the new manager.”
manager was also full of praise for the dynamic Lewis-Skelly, telling the broadcaster: “He was phenomenal today. He’s a real personality.
“He has so much trust in himself, he has an attitude about him. To have to play against [Dejan] Kulusevski and [Brennan] Johnson here is not easy. The way he handled the situation and the occasion, it was top.”