Calum Chambers says he knew his new head coach Mikel Arteta was destined for a career in the dugout when the two were playing together at Arsenal.
When Chambers joined Arsenal as a 19-year-old in the summer of 2014 Arteta was established as a senior figure in the Gunners' dressing room and had just taken the club captaincy from Thomas Vermaelen.
Five-and-a-half years on Chambers is an increasingly crucial figure at the back for Arsenal whilst Arteta's tenure as head coach has just begun. The Spaniard led his first sessions at London Colney on Sunday and will be in charge for the first time on Boxing Day when his side travel to Bournemouth.
Arteta will certainly have his doubters to win over. The new head coach has no prior experience in the role having spent the three years since he retired working as Pep Guardiola's assistant. The Manchester City boss is one of numerous experienced figures in the game to have offered a glowing endorsement of Arteta's qualities and Chambers was eager to add to that list.
"Did I know he was going to be a coach when we played together? For sure," Chambers said.
"When I came here he was one of the senior players, he helped me and gave me advice on positional play.
"He was a very intelligent player, you could always tell he had that side to him. I'm excited, everyone's excited to work with him and learn his philosophy.
"We just need to get our identity back. I know he wants to do that.
"It will take time but I know he can get that out of us. The message is we're all excited to start working with him."
Arteta was watching on from the stands as his new side drew 0-0 with Everton in interim head coach Freddie Ljungberg's final game in charge.
Arsenal certainly offered little from an attacking sense but the commitment, energy and attitude that Arteta had told his squad he wanted to see was certainly on display, not least from Chambers, whose man of the match performance where he led his side in interceptions and aerial challenges won.
After the match Arsenal players returned to the dressing room to find Arteta waiting for them, praising them for an impressive response to his demands.
"He said that today we put into play what he wanted from us. The message before the game was be brave, take responsibility and work hard for each other.
"We did that on the pitch today. He said afterwards it's a good start and there's things to work on. He was proud of the way we worked and how we worked hard today.
Chambers added: "It's a good feeling. I feel we deserved a clean sheet today, everybody worked really hard as a team.
"Obviously we're a bit disappointed we didn't get the win but there's a lot of good things to come out of that game.I know we'll be working hard on the training pitch but it's a good building block for us."
