"He's our gladiator! He's a monster in terms of physique. And when he makes a mistake, he hums around some Greek swear words. I like that. He's just a tough dog."
Stuttgart manager Pellegrino Matarazzo's description of his star defender becomes quite the praise when you realise what Dinos Mavropanos has been through over the past year.
Surviving relegation from Bundesliga 2. on the final day of the season with Nuremberg, undergoing surgery on a meniscus towards the back end of last year and being played out of position at times - the 23-year-old has been through it all in his short career so far.
football.london understands that Arsenal are closely monitoring the progress of Mavropanos whose solid performances in the Bundesliga continue to catch the eye of rival clubs and managers.
It was over three years ago when Mavropanos made his full Arsenal debut against Manchester United at Old Trafford, drawing praise for his performance after stifling United forward Romelu Lukaku throughout the match.
“In training he has shown top quality but then you always have a question mark as long as you don’t see that under pressure in a big game," said then-manager Arsene Wenger.
“Until that, you don’t know. The big players do better in the competition than in training.
“They make a career, the others – we have many players at our level who do less well in competition than in training.
“That was the question mark and I think he did well. He surprised everybody by his quality today.”
Mavropanos has played 849 minutes in the Bundesliga this season, managing a 79.5 per cent pass accuracy, whilst he has also won 73 per cent of his aerial duels. He also has one assist.
Those statistics are more impressive when you consider he has tended to play on the right side of Stuttgart's three-man defence, featuring as an inverted right-back throughout the campaign so far.
There are a few qualities that have endeared him to the Stuttgart faithful already and it's no surprise that sporting director Sven Mislintat opted to sign him on loan when given the opportunity last summer.
With 84 interceptions across 12 Bundesliga games, Mavropanos' reading of the game is second to none. Playing on the right will aid his development and it's evident that his distribution has improved over the past few months
The player himself remains humble and focused on cementing a strong finish in the Bundesliga table, but if his consistent performances continue it won't be long before he's back at London Colney challenging for a place in the Arsenal starting line-up.
