We now have eight game remaining in the Premier League as well as UEFA Champions League quarter-finals with Real Madrid to look forward to.
Declan Rice and Myles Lewis-Skelly both believe there’s so much we can achieve throughout the rest of the 2024/25 campaign.
“Until the season’s over, we need to have full belief as a group, as a team, as a fan base that we can still achieve great things,” Declan said. “We can only focus on what we can focus on and that is winning our remaining games. We also have an amazing chance to create history in terms of being the first Arsenal team to lift the Champions League.
“I think that in itself is driving us, it’s pushing us, the coaches are pushing that demand on us as well as the Premier League. We can go down in history books at this club and we have been presented with a lovely chance against Real Madrid, one of the best teams in the world. So, yes, exciting times.
“It’s been tough this year, but there’s still some positivity that can come out of it. So, stick with us, keep believing and I think good things are going to happen for this club.”
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One of those feel-good stories to come out of this season has been the emergence of academy talents Ethan Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly in the first team.
The latter puts so much of that success down to his mother, Marcia Lewis, who launched a resource for parents navigating youth football called no1fan.club.
“I think there’s only a certain amount of words I can say, but she means everything,” Myles said. “She is the reason why I do what I do and the help that she’s given me and just my journey coming through the ranks, it’s incredible.
“The work she puts in behind closed doors, she doesn’t sleep. She’s always working, always wants to better herself and I think that’s where I get everything that I’ve learnt from her. So, yeah, she’s amazing.”
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Declan added: “Being 18, looking back at my time and how he is as an 18-year-old, I think I see a lot of similarities in terms of how we are as people, in terms of how humble he is as an 18-year-old, how he’s grateful for everything and how he knows that this is only the start and he’s got to work for everything that’s to come, so it’s exciting times.
“The Premier League can throw unexpected stuff at you. I remember playing, it was like my third or fourth game for West Ham, away at Newcastle, I’d give the ball away on the halfway line, they went and scored, I got subbed at half-time, and I remember thinking, this is it, I’m not ready to play in the Premier League.
“I remember then going to ask to go on loan and they said, no, you’re going to be a part of the plans, you’re still going to play. I got left out of the squad the next match, then played again the game after, and then played every game for the rest of the season, so things can go up and down in the Premier League.
“This is the thing with Myles, at the moment it’s going so, so well, at some point there will be a point where something happens, where there’s a dip, but then it’s how you react and you come back even stronger and he’s got really good characters around him.
“Where I learned from people like Mark Noble, Aaron Cresswell, James Collins, they taught me everything I knew and how to be a good leader, a good person. He’s obviously got that now with myself, Martin, Big Gabby, Bukayo, really, really good lads who want to push these young players.”
“I think it’s hard, definitely, but just the way I feel like me and Ethan have adapted,” Myles said. “We just want to learn from everything that we can and ask as many questions as we need to ask to make sure that we’re effective.
“I feel like we’re ready to take the step and I feel like we’re just taking it by the scruff of the neck and we just want more.”
