Arsenal’s Best Academy Prospects (Ranked)

Highlights

• Arsenal have another golden generation of talent coming through their Hale End academy.
• From the next Bukayo Saka to the new Cesc Fabregas, the Gunners boast some of the best young players in the country right now.
• Mikel Arteta could hand Premier League debuts to some of the most exciting youngsters in the club’s history.

Arsenal have always had a long history of exciting and talented academy products come through at Hale End, with the likes of Jack Wilshere and Bukayo Saka to name a couple. Gunners boss Mikel Arteta has shown already in his tenure at the Emirates that he isn’t afraid of throwing players into the deep end and watching them sink or swim, and with the north Londoners boasting another set of promising youngsters, now is the time for fans to be keeping a close eye on them.

GIVEMESPORT have taken a look at the six best academy prospects at Arsenal right now, and seeing if the Premier League side do have a golden generation on the cards.

7 Myles Lewis-Skelly

One of the most exciting midfielders to come through the Arsenal system in a while, Myles Lewis-Skelly underlined his status as one of the club’s best prospects when he signed his first professional contract with the club earlier this month. Alongside another young starlet who is set to feature on this list, the Gunners could have their future midfield sorted for the next decade to come if all things go well. Brought up the Arsenal way as a technician first and foremost, Lewis-Skelly has a unique blend of pace and power, and has an exciting eye for goal too, especially when driving deep from midfield.

While Declan Rice may be the cornerstone of this Arsenal midfield for now, Lewis-Skelly will fancy his chances of potentially playing alongside him in the future. Breaking into the England senior set-up will also be a part of his ambitions, and who’s to say that he won’t do that sometime soon either. Whatever the case of when he does eventually make his first-team debut, it’s certainly a sense of ‘remember the name’ with Lewis-Skelly.

It means the world to me, my boyhood club ever since I can remember. To play for Arsenal, I’m truly speechless. It feels amazing. I’m so delighted because, since I was a boy, I’ve been dreaming of this moment. To say that I’m a professional football player now is a dream come true for me and I just want to thank all the staff and all my family that came to support me. For the support around me, I couldn’t be any more grateful.

6 Amario Cozier-Duberry

The young starlet who Arsenal fans will be hoping can turn out to be the next Bukayo Saka, GIVEMESPORT provided an in-depth look at Amario Cozier-Duberry and the kind of first-team prospects he has. A fleet-footed and quick winger who loves taking people on and delivering an end product at the end of if too, there are high hopes for the kind of player Cozier-Duberry could become if his development is treated right.

The Gunners are currently short on genuinely pacy wide options, especially on the right flank, with Saka almost having to push himself through burnout every week to feature for the Gunners. It’s no surprise then that reports in recent weeks have linked the north London side with a move for Wolves star Pedro Neto, but in Cozier-Duberry they may have the kind of in-house option that Arteta might consider turning to over the next couple of seasons. Giving him some game-time and blooding him into the first-team could see him rise to the challenge,

You see him in the way he’s stepping up in academy games now he looks like he’s running the show.
He’s looking like these games are almost a little bit too easy for him, and you want to see him tested at a higher level. He’s training with the first team and doing really well. Mikel Arteta has named him on the bench a few times, so he’s clearly a fan. I think there’s a very good player on his hands there. (Football.London reporter Kaya Kaynak)

5 Reuell Walters

Arguably the player most ready for consistent first-team minutes, Reuell Walters has been on the fringes of the senior Arsenal squad for a while now, with his name often appearing on the bench as an unused substitute. Capable of playing at right-back and at centre-back, Walters might have though he would be in line for a greater chance at action this season given Jurrien Timber’s long-term injury and Takehiro Tomiyasu’s lack of availability, but unfortunately for him, chances have been hard to come by,

Walters played every minute of Arsenal’s run to the FA Youth Cup final last season at centre-back, while he came on as a substitute in a pre-season friendly against Everton in the summer of 2023. The youngster actually spent four years in Tottenham’s academy, before rejecting the offer of a contract and taking a break for a couple of years after feeling that he had “lost” his interest in football. What was Spurs’ loss has now turned out to be Arsenal’s gain.

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3 Chido Obi-Martin

Now, to the yougster who came to the fore after a quite stunning performance in November 2023 – Chido Obi-Martin. The now 16-year-old broke into the headlines after a simply incredible ten-goal salvo against Liverpool. The striker netted a hat-trick of hat-tricks and then added another for the cherry on top. Born in Denmark on the outskirts of Copenhagen, Obi-Martin moved to the UK as a teenager, and has already been lighting up the international stage too, bagging four goals in a 6-2 win over Norway for the U17s.

The young striker has mainly featured for Arsenal’s U18s this season, but standing at an impressive 6 foot 2 already, he is quite clearly a step above his peers right now in terms of his physical stature. The question will be whether he can maintain his incredible success thus far when he meets players more on his size level and whether his technique and reading of the game can still mark him out as a fearsome forward when the physical advantages he has right now disappears.

2 Charlie Patino

A player that Arsenal have seriously high hopes for, Charlie Patino currently finds himself on his second successive loan in the Championship. Last year saw him turn out on a regular basis for Blackpool, but was unable to help the Tangerines stave off relegation. This time around, he is already making a name for himself at Swansea, and has popped up with some vital goal contributions in the Championship.

Patino has often been compared to Jack Wilshere, and it’s no surprise that the two are left-footed, silky midfielders capable of getting on the ball, driving forward and delivering an inch-perfect pass to their strikers. Another year of first-team football and battling against seasoned veterans in the Championship might be exactly what Patino needs to further bulk up and become hardened to the kind of physicality and intensity that he can expect week-in and week-out when he eventually makes the step-up to the Premier League.

1 Ethan Nwaneri

The name on everybody’s lips at Arsenal, Ethan Nwaneri, became a household name when at the tender age of 15, he became the Premier League’s youngest ever player after coming on as a substitute in the 3-0 victory over Brentford last season. The versatile midfielder who can also play out wide, is already a regular for the club’s U21s, and is surely destined for greatness. His combination of pace, directness and ability to evade danger when under pressure marks him out as a truly modern midfielder.

Given that Cesc Fabregas made his mark on an Arsenal team when he was incredibly young too, Nwaneri will be hoping that he can go onto achieve similar success like the Spaniard. While first-team opportunities have been limited this season given the Gunners are in the Champions League and not the Europa League where rotation and chances for youngsters might have been more on offer, he should be in the reckoning for some minutes sooner rather than later in the coming years.

It speaks volumes of the kind of incredible ability he has that even at 16, he is already earning Premier League minutes – something he did against West Ham in the 6-0 thrashing at the London Stadium in January 2024. Given the Gunners were in cruise control, Arteta decided to throw on the youngster and give him his first senior minutes of the campaign, and as if to underline the point of just how highly-thought of he is, club captain Martin Odegaard didn’t waste any time in trying to involve the teenager in the attack and giving him the ball at every opportunity.

If Arsenal are looking for the next hope and sensation to pin their hopes onto after Bukayo Saka, then Nwaneri is certainly well on his way to doing just that. The Gunners appear to be blessed with talent coming through in the middle of the park, and Nwaneri is the pick of the bunch by far.