{"id":8990,"date":"2026-05-04T06:53:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T06:53:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?p=8990"},"modified":"2026-05-04T06:53:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T06:53:14","slug":"gary-lineker-claims-arsenal-improved-without-cautious-51million-star-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?p=8990","title":{"rendered":"Gary Lineker claims Arsenal improved without ‘cautious’ \u00a351million star | Football"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Gary Lineker was impressed with Arsenal\u2019s performance against Fulham (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gary Lineker suggested Arsenal\u2019s dramatic improvement against Fulham coincided with Mikel Arteta\u2019s decision to rest Martin Zubimendi. <\/p>\n

The summer signing from Real Sociedad has been a near ever-present at the heart of the Gunners\u2019 engine room and formed an effective partnership alongside Declan Rice.<\/p>\n

Zubimendi\u2019s near instant adaptation has meant Myles Lewis-Skelly\u2019s chances of getting an opportunity to play in his natural position have been blocked while the arrival of Piero Hincapie has meant he has hardly featured at left-back where he impressed during his breakthrough campaign. <\/p>\n

With the games coming thick and fast over the course of the run-in, Mikel Arteta opted to take a gamble on Saturday against Fulham and hand the Hale End Academy graduate a first start in a more central role. <\/p>\n

Arteta\u2019s faith was rewarded by a superb display that helped power Arsenal to a 3-0 win that saw them open a six-point gap, albeit having played two games more, at the top of the table.<\/p>\n

Whether Arteta is brave enough to keep Lewis-Skelly in the team for the visit of Atletico Madrid in midweek remains to be seen, but Lineker couldn\u2019t help but notice the fundamental difference the 19-year-old made to Arsenal\u2019s attacking threat. <\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m going to throw something in here because I think there\u2019s a fundamental difference between the Arsenal that we\u2019ve seen in recent weeks,\u2019 Linker told The Rest Is Football Podcast.<\/p>\n

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Myles Lewis-Skelly impressed Mikel Arteta against Fulham (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018No disrespect to Zubimendi, but he\u2019s a cautious player. He\u2019s a defensive midfield player and he predominantly knocks it back.<\/p>\n

\u2018I thought Myles Lewis-Skelly came in in a midfield position, not a left-back that\u2019s moving into midfield. His first thought is to turn and look forward and quickly.<\/p>\n

\u2018I think that really enabled Arsenal to get it forward quicker. It was a bit of a plan, they pushed the wingers higher. Saka was getting the ball in time to take someone on. I think he made a fundamental difference.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s quite interesting because he\u2019s a young player and we\u2019ve known him as a full-back. But in that midfield area, the way he was so positive and looking forward.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\"Arsenal\t<\/div>
Myles Lewis-Skelly started in midfield for Arsenal against Fulham (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018Rice is a different player in the sense that he\u2019s probably at his best when he\u2019s running with the ball. But he\u2019s also a player that tends not to look for forward passes particularly quickly. So I think he really helped them.\u2019<\/p>\n

And after watching the teenager impress against seasoned Premier League opposition, Arteta admitted he may have made an error in holding back a player whose lack of game time has seen him linked with a move to Manchester United in the summer.<\/p>\n

\u2018He fully deserves it,\u2019 said the Arsenal manager reflecting on Lewis-Skelly\u2019s performance in a new-look engine room. \u2018I\u2019ve been tough on him.<\/p>\n

\u2018He had a spectacular season last year when he jumped into the first team. He had some difficult moments after that, but he stayed very humble, very focused, very aligned with what we wanted to do, and I knew he was ready.<\/p>\n

\u2018He\u2019s been showing in training every day the opportunities that he had to play. He\u2019s done it and today he really stepped up and I thought he had an incredible performance.\u2019<\/p>\n

Asked why it had taken him so long to give Lewis-Skelly a chance to impress in midfield, he added: \u2019Because probably I don\u2019t have a clue and maybe I should have done it earlier, I don\u2019t know.\u2019<\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/svg>MORE: Chelsea\u2019s \u00a340m signing told he needs to \u2018put his ego in check\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/svg>MORE: Rio Ferdinand tells Manchester United to sign \u2018wonderful\u2019 \u00a380m midfielder instead of Bruno Guimaraes<\/span><\/p>\n

Arrow<\/title>\n<\/svg>MORE: Petr Cech says \u00a325m Chelsea star has \u2018huge, huge potential\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n
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Gary Lineker claims Arsenal improved without ‘cautious’ \u00a351million star | Football
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#Gary #Lineker #claims #Arsenal #improved #cautious #51million #star #Football<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gary Lineker was impressed with Arsenal\u2019s performance against Fulham (Picture: Getty) Gary Lineker suggested Arsenal\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8991,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7752,361,7751,418,317,1437,5701,3683,541],"class_list":["post-8990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-51million","tag-arsenal","tag-cautious","tag-claims","tag-football","tag-gary","tag-improved","tag-lineker","tag-star"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2224933965_1777877569.jpg",1200,630,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2224933965_1777877569-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2224933965_1777877569-300x158.jpg",300,158,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2224933965_1777877569-768x403.jpg",640,336,true],"large":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2224933965_1777877569-1024x538.jpg",640,336,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2224933965_1777877569.jpg",1200,630,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2224933965_1777877569.jpg",1200,630,false],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2224933965_1777877569-1024x538.jpg",1024,538,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/news678.top\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2224933965_1777877569-540x340.jpg",540,340,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/news678.top\/?author=1"},"category_info":"Sports<\/a>","tag_info":"Sports","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news678.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}