For a player that Arsenal were willing to get rid of, Granit Xhaka's rise to being so irreplaceable by the end of his final season is all the more remarkable. It is a credit to himself and Mikel Arteta that things ended as well as they did.

Since his exit in July 2023 Arsenal have done plenty to try and fill the void. First, it was Kai Havertz, picked to operate initially as a left-sided No.8 crashing into the box but offering the technical skill from deep to dictate play.

Havertz's change as a player hasn't led to Arteta being able to rely on him regularly from deep. Declan Rice moved from the base of midfield, leaving Jorginho and Thomas Partey as the more orthodox No.6 metronome, and then Mikel Merino was signed.

His first six months or so in England haven't shown too many signs to suggest he will be the replacement for Xhaka that Arteta is looking for either. Granted that what he is asking his left-sided No.8 to do is different to in the 2022/23 season, the balance is still necessary between defence and attack with physicality and some goal production.

Right now Merino is offering very little in any of these aspects, although he is filling a role and had a far from ideal introduction. Missing pre-season and then arriving so late over the summer has not helped. An early injury delayed his debut and then being thrown into a team without Martin Odegaard and with structural issues plus injury problems has only added to the challenge.

The good thing for Arsenal, who are now getting able to select from all of their midfield stocks, is that in Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly they have two additional options. Nwaneri, in particular, has made a big impact from the right side whether as a winger or as cover for Odegaard.

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Lewis-Skelly is the better fit for the left spot. Not just because he is left-footed but because his profile as a combative yet smooth on the touch player has given Arteta more freedom to experiment.

Against Manchester City he combined with Rice and Leandro Trossard, moving into the pockets further up the field and taking possession under pressure. He is able to move the ball forward with driving runs from deep or passes after drawing on the opposition.

He has mastered the angles of Arteta's system in-possession and is always confident when showing to take the ball from his teammates. Be it in his defensive third or the centre circle, Lewis-Skelly has it all.

At only 18 there is still plenty about his game that can and will change. He is nominally a left-back but has all the tools to be deployed in the cooker at the heart of a Premier League game.

Lewis-Skelly might look more slight than Xhaka and he is not as strong in the tackle yet. He has enough evidence of extreme composure and increasingly creative and daring manoeuvres to indicate that there are levels to his game which cannot be imagined. His maturity and surprising strength in a short senior career so far is one of the most obvious parts to his well-rounded game.

Floating in from the left against City he found a blind spot in Pep Guardiola's defence and used a subtly of movement which Xhaka did not display often when he shifted his body to create room for a shot. Unleashing on his weaker right foot, Lewis-Skelly demonstrated all that a high-quality midfielder needs in one brief instance. That is despite starting the game at left-back on paper.

Moving forward he can increasingly be relied on to mix physicality, defensive ability, and dynamic final third effect where Merino has not been able to. This would force Rice back but with Jorginho and Partey moving towards the end of their career in north London it is increasingly a position he may have to occupy.

The possible arrival of Martin Zubimendi could change this again but for now Lewis-Skelly is more than capable of having a positive impact. He is much younger and less polished than the final form Xhaka that left Arsenal. That does not mean he cannot take on the still vacant space left in the team.

Lewis-Skelly may well continue his immediate development as a left-back but as a modern footballer he is versatile and can already invert into midfield. He is also good enough to start there at the base of a team playing for control from the back or trying to push play forward.

He will be more shielded in defence, especially this version of Arteta's backline, but will have more to offer the further he is allowed to go. Either way Lewis-Skelly will flourish for Arsenal but by taking on the empty Xhaka position he can bring new life to the midfield.