“It’s where he belongs,” Grant Cornock says, smiling. “I messaged him after the game and said exactly that: ‘That’s your level, this is what you’re capable of’.”Cornock is talking about Myles Lewis-Skelly leaving Arsenal’s pitch to a standing ovation in a Champions League semi-final three weeks ago. Or, to put it another way, the holder of the Year 7 shot put record at Aldenham School, in Hertfordshire, turning it on against Atletico Madrid in central midfield before winning the Premier League title.“Myles threw the shot 11 metres 75cm (aged 11),” adds Cornock, who is the director of sport at Aldenham and a former professional with Watford. “At sports day last year, the kids were pleased with themselves throwing 8-9 metres. So there was some serious strength there.”There are plenty of stories that Cornock can tell about Lewis-Skelly’s athletic prowess, including the time when he walked into the gymnasium on a sport scholarship assessment day and his jaw dropped at the sight of a primary school pupil hanging onto a basketball hoop.“Then you suddenly realise, wait a minute, this kid isn’t just a very good footballer, he is a specimen at 10 years old!” Cornock says, laughing.Cornock is not just a voice from Lewis-Skelly’s past. Part of a select group of people invited to the Emirates Stadium last summer to celebrate Lewis-Skelly signing a five-year contract with the club he grew up supporting, Cornock takes much more than a passing interest in the teenager’s football career.“I’ve said to Myles this season, if it wasn’t for what happened last year, if he hadn’t played for England, if he hadn’t made 30-odd appearances, and he’d then had this season, he’d probably be very happy sitting on the bench. But when you get put up there and everyone talks about you, and the crowd sing your name, it’s hard to have that comedown.”Grant Cornock with Lewis-Skelly last summer at his contract signing (Credit: Grant Cornock)The point that Cornock is making is that it’s easy to forget that Lewis-Skelly is still only 19 years old.A whirlwind breakthrough season, including a goalscoring debut for England in March last year and a performance of remarkable maturity against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in the Champions League quarter-final the following month, propelled him into the spotlight.By the end of that campaign, Lewis-Skelly had played 39 times for Arsenal, won four England caps and was nominated for the PFA Young Player of the Year award. All the while, he had been playing out of position at left-back.The season that followed has been far more challenging — as it often is for young players. Despite featuring regularly in cup competitions, Lewis-Skelly started only one Premier League game up until April and lost his place in the England squad as a result. The fallout on social media and beyond was predictable.“Some of the comments: ‘He’s not good enough, that’s why he’s not being played centre midfield.’ ‘We bought a better left-back now.’ Whether he reads it or not, I don’t know. You hope they don’t,” Cornock adds.“But if you’re not playing and you’re sitting on the side every week with 60,000 Arsenal fans behind you, and all you want to do is play, it’s hard not to take it personally, isn’t it? ‘I wanna be on that pitch, I’m not getting on.’ How do you cope with that?“And that’s why I was really pleased to hear what Declan Rice said. For him to say that the manager has been tough on Myles — not many people say something like that. So for Myles to be able to cope with that, and to not sink at those times when he wasn’t playing, and then also to come back in and play as well as he did, it speaks volumes of his unbelievable ability, obviously, but his mentality as well.”Fulham at home earlier this month feels like a watershed moment for him. It wasn’t so much that Lewis-Skelly was named in the team; it was more that he was starting a match for the first time in centre midfield — the position where he excelled as a youth player for club and country. Arsenal beat Fulham 3-0 and Lewis-Skelly was superb.If that was a bold call on Mikel Arteta’s part, an even bigger decision followed three days later. Against Atletico Madrid at home, and with a place in the Champions League final at stake, Arteta picked Lewis-Skelly in midfield ahead of Martin Zubimendi for a second time. It was a huge show of faith from the manager.Arteta with Lewis-Skelly after the controversial win at West Ham (John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images)Steve Morrow, who played for Arsenal from 1992 to 1997, got to know Lewis-Skelly and his family well during his time as head of academy recruitment at the club.“I think it’s one of the qualities of Mikel as a leader and as a coach that people often overlook, or don’t give him enough credit for — he is brave in his decision-making and he goes with his gut,” Morrow says. “And the decision was justified too, because there were two or three great performances from Myles in what I consider to be his more natural position.”Those games against Fulham and Atletico Madrid have turned around Lewis-Skelly’s season, and maybe even his Arsenal career. From being third-choice left-back and potentially available for transfer this summer, Lewis-Skelly is now firmly in the conversation to start in midfield against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final on Saturday.More than anything, though, he looks like the player that people on the inside at Arsenal always thought he would be.“Lewis-Skelly is a cheat code.”It was September 2022 when Arsenal’s Academy posted that line on social media under a 36-second clip from an under-18 game against Norwich City. The footage shows a 15-year-old boy receiving a pass deep inside his own half, leaving a trail of opponents in his wake as he drives with the ball…“… right through the middle of the pitch,” Morrow interjects.