GRAEME SOUNESS: Myles Lewis-Skelly needs to wind his neck in - Arsenal are so close to the top but there's one thing separating them from the best

I like Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly. Attitude is oozing out of him and it’s why I think he’s going to be a real player. He put in a strong performance during Arsenal’s 5-1 defeat of Manchester City last weekend which included him mimicking Erling Haaland’s goal celebration after extending his team’s lead. I love attitude in all walks of life – and not just in the football world. People who go out there and say: ‘This is me. I’m going to do this.’ I like to see players who have b******s, too.

But I have to say, having seen that celebration, I think he needs to wind his neck in. At 18, it’s a bit early to be going down the road of mimicking a player like Haaland, someone who’s achieved great things in our league. Wait till you’ve won a few things in our game, son. Just give it a few years. Listen and learn every day until then. Know that someone so young going down that road is not a good look.

I really like Myles Lewis-Skelly but he needs to wait until he's won a few things first. I love Lewis-Skelly's confidence but mocking Erling Haaland isn't the way to go yet. I like to see players assert themselves but in this case he needs to wind his neck in. Mikel Arteta has built a really good team who are still a couple of top strikers away from challenging Liverpool to be the very best. Those strikers are the hardest thing to find. The most important ingredient in building a winning team – and very much Arsenal’s missing ingredient.

Put Newcastle United’s Alexander Isak in that Arsenal team – because he’s the player they want to buy this summer – and you are looking at a side who would be the finished article and ready to get their hands on either of the two big trophies. The club’s Carabao Cup semi-final this week proved my point. Yes, Arsenal were beaten by Newcastle United, but for me they were the better team. Stats never go near to telling the full story of course, but Arsenal had 68 per cent possession in that game, 69.5 per cent possession in the first leg and yet still went out 4-0 on aggregate because they didn’t have anyone to put the ball in the net across those 180 minutes.

Arsenal should have owned those games. One day, they go and score five against Manchester City. Three days later they dominate Newcastle and come unstuck. I assure you that they will have come away from St James’ Park thinking, ‘how have we not gone through over two legs?’ They can’t afford that inconsistency. It is the fundamental difference between them and Liverpool. My old club have better goalscorers, which means they don’t have to play well to win games and are less reliant on set-pieces. But without those strikers, Arsenal have to play well to win games.

Arsenal will have come away from St James' Park thinking 'how have we not gone through?'. Arsenal should have owned the two legs against Newcastle but had no goalscorers. They spent £65million in June 2023 to take Kai Havertz from Chelsea, believing Mikel could make him a better player. Well, I’m afraid that’s not happened. Havertz has not got any better. He is simply not the answer for them. It doesn’t surprise me that Mikel has come out this week and said he is disappointed with his club’s business in the transfer window. The fact that Arsenal were trying to buy Ollie Watkins from Aston Villa in the last knockings of the winter transfer window tells you how badly they wanted a striker.

If Arsenal had met the asking price of £60m-plus for that 29-year-old early in the window – and before Jhon Duran was sold to Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia – they might have got him. Had that proved the difference between them winning the title or being the nearly-men again, they would have felt the price was worth it. For them to make a last-minute bid like that tells you that Mikel was desperate. Really desperate. When they do get the right striker or strikers in, that club will be a force for anyone and a club to fear. Until then, where the title is concerned, I’m afraid they’re looking like a near miss.

WHY THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE IS HEADING BACK TO ENGLAND. I wouldn’t be judging any of the players Manchester City have just spent more than £180million on, between now and the end of the season. It will all be about next season for them. City’s priority will just be to get back on the horse, dig out results and be in the Champions League next year. But despite the fact they play Real Madrid in the first game of the two-leg Champions League play-off on Tuesday, you would be brave man to bet against City going all the way in that competition and possibly winning it.

There’s no one out there that Liverpool, Arsenal with a bit of luck in front of goal, or Manchester City if they turn up on the night, need be fearful of. I see the Champions League being in an English trophy cabinet, come the end of the season. New Man City signing Abdukodir Khusanov had a rough ride on his debut against Chelsea, but I won't be judging him just yet. Omar Marmoush is part of a £180million spending spree - and may yet help City to Champions League glory by the end of the season.