Arteta believes Arsenal ‘lucky’ to have ‘special’ 24yo

Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

“Obviously his role has grown around the club, around the team and on the pitch towards the opponent as well,” Arteta said. “You sense that. He has got a presence now, he has got an aura. He has got something special.

“He is a different player, he is a player that can change a game at any moment. And creating that fear in the opponent is something important.

“We would have loved to have him much more in recent weeks. But, I said to him, ‘if that’s the case, let’s use this in the best way — which is you are going to jump in fresh, motivated and with a different emotional state. You can really impact the team now’.

“I feel extremely lucky, and I said this from the beginning, to find somebody at the club that you can lean into at any level. Knowing that he’s going to respond.”

Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images

Arsenal certainly need someone to lean on right now, three wins away from guaranteeing the Premier League title before heading to Budapest for the Champions League final.

Sunday’s trip to West Ham is arguably the most difficult of the remaining league fixtures, against a side in dire need of a win to secure their Premier League future.

Burnley are already down, Crystal Palace will finish mid-table and have a Europa Conference League final to think about. But West Ham will be fully motivated, and it’s up to Arsenal to deal with that and ensure their quality shows through.