Arsenal need all the help they can get, at the moment. Down to three fit forwards, one of whom is still only 17, they need bodies, and talented ones to sustain a Premier League and Champions League run-in.
What better time, then, to have a gold mine just down the road from their training ground, which has begun to churn out wonderkid after wonderkid ready-made for Mikel Arteta's first team.
Amid the 5-1 thrashing of Manchester City earlier this month, two scorers particularly resonated with the Arsenal faithful.
Ethan Nwaneri, 17, and Myles Lewis-Skelly, 18. A pair of teenage starlets moulded in the north London club’s Hale End academy, a breeding ground which has produced the likes of Jack Wilshere, Ashley Cole, Tony Adams and, of course, Bukayo Saka.
It made that Sunday afternoon all the more impressive in that two best friends who joined the academy aged eight had contributed with first-team performances beyond their tender years.
Substitute Nwaneri scored an exquisite goal in injury time, curling the ball into the bottom-left corner, while Lewis-Skelly topped off his start with a strike of his own — marked by the mimicking of Erling Haaland’s ‘zen’ celebration after the Norwegian had told Arteta to ‘stay humble’ earlier in the season.
Arteta has often been cautious about playing youth, a criticism supporters have previously voiced. Last season, he didn’t feature any academy players in Premier League matches. Now, with season-ending injuries for Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus, plus continuing problems for Saka and Gabriel Martinelli, they must step up.
The ascent of Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly vindicates a Hale End setup which is heavily influenced from the very top. The base, located near Walthamstow in north east London, is home to boys aged eight to 16 hoping to one day reach Arteta’s first team. And it is beginning to bear some wonderful fruit.
This season, Nwaneri has made 14 league appearances with three starts, while Lewis-Skelly is on 10 including seven starts. These joyous talents, plucked from Arsenal's doorstep - Lewis-Skelly grew up in the same borough, Islington, as the Emirates Stadium while Nwaneri is from nearby Enfield - are a priceless addition to a squad decimated by injury this season and needing an injection of life into a title challenge that has struggled to get going all campaign.
It is the top end of a dedicated strategy to best utilise the outstanding young talent in Arsenal's ranks. While Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly are the gems, nine academy players in all have been handed debuts in all competitions since the start of last season.
Mail Sport understands that last summer, the Arsenal hierarchy looked at streamlining the pathway from the academy to first team, to improve progression.
It ties into a more aggressive approach than in previous years in attracting young talent. Dutch-born England youth international goalkeeper Tommy Setford, 18, was signed to a four-year contract from Ajax for a fee under £1million in July, and Kyran Thompson, 15, joined from West Ham for £1.1m in September. The Gunners are also paying a full scholarship for Thompson at £17,500-a-year school St John’s, a scheme they also used for Nwaneri.
In these cases, Arsenal put together rewarding packages to lure players they see big potential in. More generally, there is a prestige about the club brand and its history in bringing young players through the system.
Not all will make it, of course, and an academy will pride itself on producing professional footballers and people as well as serving their primary purpose of feeding into Arsenal's first-team squad.
There was something of a mass exodus last summer, including Amario Cozier-Duberry (on loan to Blackburn from Brighton), Reuell Walters (Luton Town) and Chido Obi-Martin (Manchester United). Ayden Heaven left last month to join Obi-Martin at United.
Some of the names were let go of Arsenal’s accord — but not all. Particularly record-breaking goalscorer Obi-Martin, who the Gunners fought hard to keep. He will be back in a big way next month when he, Heaven and the United Under 18s face Arsenal in the FA Youth Cup quarter-finals.
It has been noticeable how quickly Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly have adapted to first-team football, and in particular being ready for a team competing at the top in the Premier League and Champions League, at such a young age.
Part of this comes from the way they have been trained ever since they joined the academy. Arsenal youth sides from Under 11s upwards are made to play in the same way as the first team - that means inverted full backs, a 4-3-3 formation and a ball-playing goalkeeper.
‘The coaches meet to make sure the style is the same as the first team,’ a source close to the academy told Mail Sport. ‘It makes it easier for them to transition as you already know what to do. The first-teamers don’t have to coach you through the game. It’s all about doing it faster and more efficiently.’
The step up is therefore more of a mental battle rather than an acclimatisation to styles.
A Gunners coach had told a youngster making his debut first-team appearance in a previous season: ‘You should not let the atmosphere get the best for you because if you’re selected for the game, you’re good enough. It’s about if you can mentally deal with the pressure.'
Arteta has played his part, too. Some managers keep the youth team separate to the seniors, whereas he prefers an integrated approach. If you're good enough, you're old enough, and Max Dowman, now 15, has been training with the first team in recent months.
Arteta has attended at least one Under 21 match this season and keeps updated on how standout players are progressing. He understands the importance of the academy having come through Barcelona’s famous La Masia setup — an aspect which has stayed with him.
It was there that Arteta roomed with the likes of Andres Iniesta and Xavi, and he last month described it as ‘the most unique environment that I have seen in my life’.
At Arsenal, academy players are constantly invited into first-team training. Before most matches, youngsters are drafted in to play in a training match against the men’s side in the style of their upcoming opponents. So, for Arsenal’s match against Ruud van Nistelrooy’s Leicester this Saturday, it is likely that the kids will make up an XI mimicking how Leicester play.
A source told Mail Sport: ‘Arteta has done well in integrating the academy with the first team. They are around the first team on a daily basis, so if they do make the transition they all know each other already. It’s different to many other clubs where kids just get the odd session here or there as a reward.’
There’s also been a Gunners nucleus embedded throughout the setup in recent years. Arteta is first-team manager and fellow former club captain Per Mertesacker is academy manager.
Until November, Edu was sporting director and Wilshere the Under 18s head coach. The Brazilian is now on leave as he prepares to take a job with Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis' group of clubs, while Wilshere is now on the first-team coaching staff at Norwich.
Those four can count on a combined 695 Arsenal first-team appearances, and it creates a strong core of values resonating through key areas of the club.
Even the Hale End canteen has roots going back to 1954 with an academy debutants board comprising of gold plaques commemorating each graduate’s first-team debut. The names of Saka et al are all there, serving as a reminder to the next generation.
Hale End develops kids from Under 9s through to Under 16s. Those deemed ready to make the step up then graduate as a paid scholar at London Colney, a 30-mile drive away in Hertfordshire where the teams from Under 18s to the seniors train.
This split between age groups across two different bases differs to many other clubs across the Premier League. Getting the opportunity to cross over to Colney to join the Under 18s is a big moment for any of the youngsters. Regardless of where their careers end up, graduating to the base of the big boys is something that stays with them.
If they do, again, there is a sense of familiarity. The architecture across Colney and Hale End is identical both in terms of changing rooms and training facilities for the age groups.
The teams, all the way from Under 9s to the Under 21s, are overseen by Mertesacker who is in charge of up to 100 staff and players. He had not even finished his playing career when it was announced in July 2017 that the German would be taking the post of academy manager the following summer. Arsene Wenger had been convinced that Mertesacker fitted the role perfectly.
The German places an emphasis on good young men over raw talent itself, believing a good person follows a good footballer, rather than the other way around. The way players behave and interact on and off the field is closely looked at.
Mertesacker is well-respected, having been a World Cup winner and having worn the Arsenal armband. He is one of the main faces when young players come through the door at the Colney base and is present upon when they first sign.
His remit goes across the board and includes hiring managers and player development strategies.
Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola, who Arteta served an apprenticeship under from 2016 to 2019, has often chosen against sending his most promising stars out on loan, believing they are best served by being around the men’s team.
That included Cole Palmer, Phil Foden, and now Oscar Bobb, all of whom paid off in terms of their personal development. Arsenal have a slightly different stance. Lewis-Skelly was considered for a loan before this season, for example.
In the most recent transfer window, winger Kabia was earmarked for a move to Portsmouth. The club decided against sending him by way of first-team cover, as they are short out wide after the injuries to Saka and Jesus.
So the Gunners are open to loaning out young players where they see fit. Centre back Maldini Kacurri, who has been on Arsenal’s bench six times this season in the Premier League and Champions League, has joined Bromley on loan.
Looking forward to the next Nwaneri or Lewis-Skelly, the next academy star to properly break through could take some time. A club is lucky to get one in a cohort, never mind two, so Arsenal have been rather blessed this season.
Ismeal Kabia, 19, and Nathan Butler-Oyedeji, 22, have featured regularly on the bench this season with Arsenal short of options going forward.
Butler-Oyedeji made his senior debut in injury time against Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League last month, while Kabia was one of a host of Hale End graduates who made their senior debut in the 5-1 victory over Bolton in the Carabao Cup in September.
Butler-Oyedeji has an impressive seven goals and six assists in 10 Under 21s games this season, though, as seen on many occasions, doing well in academy football doesn’t always translate to success in the men’s game, and neither is seen to be at the level of Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly yet.
But they were invited on the first-team trip to Dubai last week, a significant moment given that last season this trip was the spark for a torrid run of form in the second half of the campaign, with Arsenal winning 16 of their final 18 league games.
Dowman is seen as the next cab off the rank for the path from Hale End to first-team action, but as my colleague Sami Mokbel reveals today, he needs special dispensation from the FA to play in the Premier League as he is still registered as an Under 15.
He was also there in Dubai, as were goalkeeper Jack Porter, 16, who became the youngest starter in Arsenal's 139-year history against Bolton in September, plus full back Josh Nichols (18), Polish right back and free-kick specialist Michal Rosiak (19), Irish midfielder Jack Henry-Francis (21) and winger Charles Sagoe Jnr (20).
Time will tell whether any of those will share a regular first-team place alongside the trailblazers. But for now, Arsenal supporters can relish the further ascent of Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly thanks to the Hale End production line.