In the aftermath of Arsenal’s stunning 5-1 win over Manchester City, attention shifted to Myles Lewis-Skelly’s performance and also his celebration after scoring.
The teenage star recreated Erling Haaland’s iconic yoga pose, drawing admiration from the Arsenal fans and criticism from some fans and pundits online.
While many saw it as a response to Haaland’s comments about the youngster the last time these two sides faced each other, former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher voiced his disapproval, suggesting that it reflected arrogance on the pitch. “I said about have football arrogance on the pitch, and I loved it. I didn’t like this because he’s a young player mimicking Haaland, taking the mick,” Carragher said.
In a discussion on The Overlap Fan Debate, the pundit went on to make an eyebrow-raising claim regarding Mikel Arteta’s handling of Arsenal’s young talents, particularly Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly.
He suggested that Arteta had been keeping the pair grounded by separating them from the senior squad, which included having them change in different dressing rooms.
Carragher speculated that Arteta and his coaching staff were aiming to ensure that the teenagers didn’t get carried away. In his words, “Don’t let these lads get carried away, they aren’t even going to be changing with the first team,” is what the coaching staff or manager would be saying and discussing.
He even went on to say that the coaching staff maybe wanted the youngsters “to know their place.”
This claim, however, left Arsenal fans perplexed, frustrated, and angry.
The reason Nwaneri currently, and Lewis-Skelly prior to September 2024, didn’t change in the first-team dressing room wasn’t a disciplinary measure but was due to safeguarding rules.
As per these regulations, players under 18 are required to change separately from senior players, and thus, Nwaneri must prepare for matches elsewhere before joining his teammates for the final team talk.
In fact, Mikel Arteta has spoken about this matter publicly: “Ethan cannot be in our dressing room still, which is unbelievable,” said Arteta referring to the rules in place.
Arsenal supporters were quick to jump on Carragher’s misrepresentation of the situation, pointing out the factual inaccuracy of his statement. “It’s a safeguarding law @Carra23 you buffoon. He’s under 18 and by law he can’t change in the same changing rooms as adults” said one fan
Football Twitter was ablaze with reactions to Jamie ‘s comments with plenty voicing their displeasure.
“Carragher has access to every resource imaginable to avoid being so uninformed that you get something this wrong,” said one user while another added, “losing a lot of respect for Carra as each day passes.”
“Carra are you going to correct the record or do we just have to take every fabrication with a pinch of salt?” tweeted an Arsenal fan.
One Arsenal fan accused Carragher of having an ‘agenda’ following his comments. “With zero fact checking, we now have Jamie Carragher spinning another agenda about keeping players in their place. B****cks.”
There’s no denying that Jamie Carragher’s attempt to talk about/offer advice on keeping the youngsters humble was based on a misinterpretation of the facts—one that left Arsenal fans and football Twitter in an uproar.
